Stevie Wonder Unvaults Four Songs in the Key of Life Tracks

Stevie Wonder has released four previously unissued songs from the sessions for Songs in the Key of Life, marking the album's 50th anniversary. The tracks appear now as Songs in the Key of Life: The EP.

Wonder personally selected the four songs—"It's Easier," "My Life Story of Love," "I Can See the Sun in Late December," and "I'm Into Lovin'"—from the outtakes of the sprawling sessions that produced the 90-minute double album, originally released in 1976.

"We've lived with Songs in the Key of Life for fifty years, but there's still more to hear," Wonder said in a press release. "We didn't add these songs to the album, but they were part of what I was feeling and discovering as we made it. They bring me back to that time in my life, and now they get to become part of yours."

Wonder wrote and produced all four tracks himself. Susaye Greene, formerly of the Supremes, shares a co-writing credit on "My Life Story of Love." John Fischbach and Gary O Adante, the original album's engineers, returned to mix the new EP.

The release sets the stage for Wonder's anniversary tour of the original album, which begins next month. For an artist who has largely guarded his vault, the EP offers the rarest thing in popular music: finished, unheard Stevie Wonder recordings from his most celebrated era.