"Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)" is a 1972 soul track by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

. It was the second track on Wonder's '' Music of My Mind'' album, and was also released as the first single. The song reached a peak of number 33 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart.

Background

In essence a two-part song, there is a coherence in that it tells a story of the singer's relationship with "Mary". The first part covers her desire to be a star, and to leave behind her old life to become a movie star. The second part covers the narrator's wondering why she had not come back as soon as he had hoped. The second part of the song is also a reworking of the song "

Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" is a 1971 song by Stevie Wonder, featured on his album ''Where I'm Coming From''. The song is a ballad, describing a failed relationship using the metaphor of changing seasons. Co-written by Syreeta Wright ...

" from the 1971 album '' Where I'm Coming From''. The song, both in its sound and length, was a change of pace for Wonder, who was trying to establish his own identity outside of the Motown sound. Besides its floaty ambience, it featured the singer as a virtual one-man band. ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' said of the song "Superwoman, superproduction, supersong, superhit: AM and FM, pop/soul and MOR."

Personnel

– lead vocal, background vocal, Rhodes piano, drums, Moog bass,

T.O.N.T.O. synthesizer Tonto's Expanding Head Band was a British-American electronic music duo consisting of Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff. Despite releasing only two albums in the early 1970s, the duo were influential in the development of electronic music an ...

* Buzz Feiten – electric guitar

Chart performance

Notable covers

*In 1973, R&B group The Main Ingredient covered the song in their album, "Afrodisiac". In 1997, soul vocalist

Eric Benet The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

covered the song in an arrangement by keyboardist

George Duke George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a pr ...

which was featured on the soundtrack of US sitcom '' Living Single''. Duke again covered the song from his 2005 album ''Duke''.

References

1972 singles Stevie Wonder songs Songs written by Stevie Wonder 1970s ballads Rhythm and blues ballads Song recordings produced by Stevie Wonder {{1970s-single-stub