"Living for the City" is a 1973 single by Stevie Wonder from his Innervisions album. It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 104 on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Story and production

Born into a poor family in Mississippi, a young black man experiences discrimination in looking for work and eventually seeks to escape to New York City (alluding to the Second Great Migration) in hopes of finding a new life. Through a series of background noises and spoken dialogue, the man reaches New York by bus, but is then promptly framed for a crime, arrested, convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison. Wonder played all the instruments on the song and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording engineering and synthesizer programming. Tenley Williams, writing in Stevie Wonder (2002), feels it was "one of the first soul hits to include both a political message and ... sampling ... of the sounds of the streets - voices, buses, traffic, and sirens - mixed with the music recorded in the studio."

Reception

Billboard described "Living for the City" as a "spectacular production of a country boy whose parents sacrifice themselves for him," and also praised the vocals and horn playing. The song has won two Grammy Awards: one at the 1974 Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, and the second for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1975 Grammy Awards for Ray Charles' recording on his album Renaissance. It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart. Rolling Stone ranked the song number 104 on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Personnel

Influence

Public Enemy sampled the phrase get in that cell, nigger in their song "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos." Usher (or at least his producer Polow da Don) sampled the song for the hook of "Lil Freak." Gillan covered the song, releasing it as a single which reached No. 50 in the UK, and on its 1982 album Magic.

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Cover versions

Dance music artist Sylvester covered the song on his 11th studio album, Mutual Attraction (1986), his major label debut album. Sylvester's "Living for the City" was released as the album's lead single and peaked at #2 on Billboard's Dance Club Play Chart.