"They Won't Go When I Go" is a song co-written and performed 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 ...

from his 1974 album ''

Fulfillingness' First Finale ''Fulfillingness' First Finale'' is the seventeenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder, released on July 22, 1974 by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. It is the fourth of five albums from what is considered Wonder's "cla ...

''. This song is the only one on the album that Wonder did not write by himself. His co-writer was

Yvonne Wright Yvonne Lowrene Wright (October 31, 1951 – January 26, 2016) was an American songwriter and vocalist best known for co-writing with Stevie Wonder in the 1970s. Their songs appear on the albums ''Music of My Mind'', ''Talking Book'', ''Fulfilli ...

, who co-wrote songs with Wonder for other albums. Wonder performed this song, along with "

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 a ...

", at

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

memorial service A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect th ...

on July 7, 2009.

Composition

The song has been considered a "retro composition", where comparisons of the piano part to the style of Chopin and the Baroque

passacaglia The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre. Origin The ter ...

chaconne A chaconne (; ; es, chacona, links=no; it, ciaccona, links=no, ; earlier English: ''chacony'') is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short rep ...

technique—a repeating bassline in a minor key and in

triple metre Triple metre (or Am. triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a ''primary'' division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 (compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with , , ...

—can be drawn. The song is also noted to have a "funeral march" like tone. There is clear allusion to the 1850 German chorale tune "O mein Jesu," the setting of Thomas Kelly's 1805 Protestant hymn "Stricken, smitten, and afflicted." Critics noted that the song takes a more dramatic tone than most of Wonder's other compositions. The fact that the song specifically says "They won't go ''when'' I go" was said to imply the friends Wonder is talking about may get to heaven eventually, just not before he does. Interpreted more broadly as a hymn, the song is the cry not just of Wonder, but the faithful in general, awaiting a second coming where they are taken and others are not. Many consider this song to be a dark consequence of Stevie's 1973 car accident.

Covers

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling musici ...

covered the song for his second solo album, ''

Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 ''Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1'' is the second solo studio album by the English singer-songwriter George Michael, released on 3 September 1990 by Columbia Records (Epic Records in the UK). The album was Michael's final album of all-new materi ...

'' in 1990. *

Josh Groban Joshua Winslow Groban (born February 27, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. His first four solo albums have been certified multi-platinum, and he was charted in 2007 as the number-one best selling artist in the United States, wi ...

covered the song on the Japanese bonus track edition of his fifth studio album, ''

Illuminations (Josh Groban album) ''Illuminations'' is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Josh Groban, produced by Rick Rubin. Similar to his previous albums, ''Illuminations'' contains songs sung in a variety of languages, including his first take on a Portugue ...

'' in 2010. *

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

opened his set at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

's "Party in the Garden" event with a cover of it on May 10, 2011. * Camille recorded it for her second studio album, ''I Sing Stevie: The Stevie Wonder Songbook'' in 2014, which received an Independent Music Award nomination for Best Tribute Album. *

Chance the Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Bennett released his debut mixtape '' 10 Day'' in 2012. He ...

did a cover of it as part of a surprise

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Tiny Desk Concert Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of ''All Songs Considered'' host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. The first Tiny Desk Concert came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music editor Stephen Thomp ...

in early June 2017.

References

Stevie Wonder songs George Michael songs Songs written by Stevie Wonder Pop ballads 1974 songs Song recordings produced by Stevie Wonder {{1970s-single-stub