"He's Misstra Know-It-All" is a single by

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

for the

Tamla Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''motor'' ...

(

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

) label, from his '' Innervisions'' album, which reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1974. The song takes the form of a mellow ballad with a steady beat, principally a solo performance with Wonder providing lead vocal, background vocal, piano, drums, handclaps and congas.Wonder, Stevie. "Innervisions" (Liner Notes). Tamla Motown. 1973. Horn sounds are played on the

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer ...

that’s programmed by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff. Ethereal flute-like sounds are provided by the TONTO modular synthesizer that's also programmed by Cecil and Margouleff.

Willie Weeks Willie Weeks (born August 5, 1947) is an American bass guitarist. He has gained fame performing with famous musicians in a wide variety of genres. He has been one of the most in-demand session musicians throughout his career. Weeks has also ga ...

, on electric bass, is the only other musician. Towards the end of the song the mood changes to a stronger feel, more strident singing and with hand-claps emphasising the beat, half-beat and quarter-beat. The song was released again in 1977 in both the UK and US as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

to " Sir Duke". The song is essentially a long description of a know-it-all

confidence trick A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irrespons ...

ster character who is a "man with a plan", who has a slick answer to all his critics and who has "a counterfeit dollar in his hand." It has been alleged that this is a reference to United States' President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

, who resigned the same year the song was released.

Recording

The song was started and completed in a matter of three days.

Piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

and lead vocals were recorded on April 5, 1973.

Harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

and background vocals were recorded on April 6. Synthesizer overdubs and mixing took place on April 8.

Track listing

A. "He's Misstra Know-It-All" – 3:25 (

)
B. "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover" – 2:32 (Wonder, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy)"Stevie Wonder – He's Misstra Know It All"
at Discogs.

Personnel

Information is based on the album’s liner notes *

– lead vocal, background vocal, piano, drums, handclaps,

congas The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are stave (wood), staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (drum), quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), an ...

* Malcolm Cecil - TONTO synthesizer programming * Robert Margouleff - TONTO synthesizer programming *

–

electric bass The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an electric but with a longer neck and scale leng ...

References

1973 songs 1974 singles Stevie Wonder songs Songs written by Stevie Wonder Tamla Records singles {{1970s-single-stub