Stevie Wonder Releases Four Outtakes From 'Songs in the Key of Life'

Stevie Wonder has released four outtakes from the recording sessions for "Songs in the Key of Life," his landmark 1976 double album.

The material surfaced this week, giving listeners their first official access to recordings made during the sessions that produced one of the most celebrated albums in American popular music. Wonder has not previously issued studio material from those sessions in this form.

"Songs in the Key of Life," released in September 1976 on Motown's Tamla label, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and has sold millions of copies worldwide. The album's sessions were famously prolific, and fans and historians have long speculated about what remained in the vault.

The four outtakes now stand as the first fruits of that archive. Their release adds a new chapter to the album's nearly five-decade afterlife, which has included anniversary reissues and a celebrated live tour.

For a full playlist of the week's notable new songs, including Wonder's outtakes alongside eight other tracks our critics are discussing, see the source feature, "Stevie Wonder's Outtake and 8 More Songs We're Talking About."

Whether more vault material follows remains to be seen. For now, the release confirms that the "Songs in the Key of Life" sessions still hold surprises.