This song is about a cheating couple, and the machinations they go through to keep their affair a secret. They are part-time lovers because they have to keep it on the down-low: We are strangers by day, lovers by night Knowing it's so wrong, but feeling so right The song ends in a twist (or maybe, a tryst), when it becomes clear to the singer that his wife has a part-time lover of her own who is playing the same game. Wonder says that he has been in a similar position, with a guy calling his home and trying to disguise his voice when Stevie answered it.
Wonder was a pioneer when it came to making and recording music using electronics and computers. This is an early example of digital audio recording, which Wonder put together at his own Wonderland Studios. One of the devices he used was a LinnDrum, a popular drum machine/sampler. "He bought the second drum machine I ever made," Roger Linn said in a Songfacts interview. "I think he used my drum machine very well on 'Part-Time Lover.'"
According to Wonder, he drew on two songs by The Supremes as a musical influence for this one: "You Can't Hurry Love" and "My World Is Empty Without You."
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