Stevie Wonder wrote this song as a tribute to music, specifically to Duke Ellington, who had passed away in 1974. Ellington was a jazz bandleader and composer who was a big influence on Wonder. "I knew the title from the beginning but wanted it to be about the musicians who did something for us," Stevie said. "So soon they are forgotten. I wanted to show my appreciation. They gave us something that is supposed to be forever. That's the basic idea of what we do and how we hook it up."
In addition to Ellington, musicians referenced in this song are "Satchmo" Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie and Sodarisa Miller.
This wasn't the first song Wonder wrote in tribute to one of his musical inspirations: "Bye Bye World" from his 1968 album Eivets Rednow is about the guitarist Wes Montgomery. Wonder's second album, released in 1962 when he was just 12 years old, was Tribute to Uncle Ray, which paid homage to Ray Charles. This was more of a marketing ploy by Motown, who were pushing Wonder as the second coming of Charles.
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