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Sep 04, 2008, 12:48PM

Library of Congress follows Tom Jones, Barack Obama in realizing Stevie Wonder is awesome

OK, the headline might be a little misleading. Here's the straight dope: the Library of Congress just awarded Stevie the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. He's the second to be awarded the honor; Paul Simon took it home for the first time in 2007. In honor of this kind-of-random-but-well-meaning accolade, here are some tremendous videos of a young Stevie with none other than Tom "It's Not Unusual" Jones, replete with a burning drum solo. Enjoy.

The following video was included in this article:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/EWWXCvXsXwI

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    russ

    Splice staff
    commented

    It is a a random-but-well-meaning accolade, and should've been awarded a couple of decades ago. You can argue which Wonder was more of a wonder--when he was a kid, who had the pipes that put young (and very good) Michael Jackson to shame, with "Uptight" and "Castles in the Sand", or his grown up phase, which started with "Music of My Mind--but he really mattered for over 20 years. I saw Stevie and Mick Jagger do a duet on "Uptight" in '72 at the Stones' "Exile on Main Street" tour at Madison Square Garden and it was unforgettable.

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