Song Lyric Sunday

Fandango

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to “write about a song that references another group/artist in it.” The song I chose is Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke.”

The song was written by Stevie Wonder for his 1976 album, Songs in the Key of Life, as a tribute to jazz legend Duke Ellington, who had passed away two years earlier. “Sir Duke” was released as a single in 1977 and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and was ranked as the number18 song of that year.

In addition to Ellington, Wonder references other musicians in this song, including Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and Sodarisa Miller.

About this song, Wonder said, “I knew the title from the beginning but wanted it to be about the musicians who did something for us. So soon they are forgotten. I wanted to show my appreciation. They gave us something that is supposed to be forever. That’s the basic idea of what we do and how we hook it up.”

Here are the lyrics to “Sir Duke.”

Music is a world within itself
With a language we all understand
With an equal opportunity
For all to sing, dance and clap their hands
But just because a record has a groove
Don’t make it in the groove
But you can tell right away at letter A
When the people start to move

They can feel it all over
They can feel it all over people
They can feel it all over
They can feel it all over people

Music knows it is and always will
Be one of the things that life just won’t quit
But here are some of music’s pioneers
That time will not allow us to forget
For there’s Basie, Miller, Sachmo
And the king of all Sir Duke
And with a voice like Ella’s ringing out
There’s no way the band can lose

You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
You can feel it all over people
You can feel it all over

I can feel it all over-all over now people
Can’t you feel it all over
Come on let’s feel it all over people
You can feel it all over
Everybody-all over people

16 thoughts on “Song Lyric Sunday”

  2. Adelaide Dupont August 18, 2019 / 6:02 am

    Sir Duke – that’s Ellington!

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  3. newepicauthor August 18, 2019 / 7:48 am

    Thanks for participating again Fandango and submitting this awesome song that I never paid much attention to the lyrics before. It always makes the song sound better when you get some insight into it.

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    • Fandango August 18, 2019 / 8:40 am

      You’re very welcome, Jim. I always look forward to your SLS prompt and I learn a lot about my favorite artists and their songs because of it.

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  4. freefallin14 August 18, 2019 / 8:17 am

    I love the whole song and really love beginning with the kick drum and the horns.

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  5. sca11y August 18, 2019 / 8:30 am

    Listened to this album just a few weeks ago!

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  6. msjadeli August 18, 2019 / 9:36 am

    Almost chose this one. It’s an energetic song and a good one!

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  7. Marleen August 18, 2019 / 12:09 pm

    Interesting write up. Thanks for that.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. ghostmmnc August 18, 2019 / 1:53 pm

    Oh yeah I remember this song! Good one, and isn’t it great to have the lyrics printed out these days, so easy. Used to be I’d have to play a song and rewind a bunch of times to be able to write them down. haha! 🙂

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