I Gotta Have a Song
TRIVIA
- This track acted as the B-side to Heaven Help Us All, which peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.
- This is the penultimate song on the 12-track playlist of Signed, Sealed & Delivered (1970), which itself was Stevie’s 12th studio album.
- I Gotta Have a Song is one of the last Stevie Wonder tracks that was co-written by his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway.
- A cover of I Gotta Have a Song can be found on the Jeff Beck Group‘s last studio album, which itself is titled Jeff Beck Group (1972).
- Stevie Wonder later released another song with “gotta” in the title. That being 1991’s Gotta Have You, from the Jungle Fever soundtrack.
LYRICAL ANALYSIS
This is one of those types of songs where the vocalist is celebrating music for its anti-depressant properties. Stevie appears to be suffering from a broken heart due to the absence of his significant other. The first verse indicates that she unexpectedly dumped him, so now the singer is in his feelings. And Stevie has concluded that what he needs to counteract this depression is to be someplace “where there’s music” and more specifically “a happy, happy song”.
SOURCES
“Stevie Wonder – I Gotta Have a Song Lyrics”. Genius. Accessed on 1 July 2024.
“Signed, Sealed & Delivered”. Wikipedia. Last edited on 10 June 2024.
“Heaven Help Us All”. Wikipedia. Last edited on 23 April 2023.
Stevie Wonder. “I Gotta Have a Song”. YouTube. 7 August 2018.
Rick Yon. Jeff Beck Group – I Got To Have A Song. YouTube. 18 December 2008.
I Gotta Have a Song (1970)
I Got to Have a Song by Jeff Beck Group (1972)