Syreeta Wright
Syreeta Wright, aka Syreeta, was born in 1946, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her dad was one Lordian Wright. When Syreeta was a small child, during the early-1950s, Lordian was conscripted to fight in the Korean War and died therein. So it was her mom, Essie, as well as Syreeta’s grandmother who raised her and her sister, whose name is/was Kim.
In her youth, Syreeta was an aspiring entertainer. First, it would appear, as a ballet dancer but subsequently switching over to singing due to it being a less-expensive career pursuit.
She did eventually get down with Motown, in 1965, albeit as a receptionist, not a recording artist. But with her foot in the door and her singing talent initially being noticed by Edward Holland (of Holland-Dozier-Holland), Syreeta was eventually granted a label-backed recording opportunity. That came in the form of a 1968 single titled I Can’t Give Back the Song I Feel for You which, by the way, was co-written by Ashford & Simpson. However, that effort failed to chart.
Additionally, during the late-1960s, Wright participated on demo recordings for Diana Ross and the Supremes (sometimes as a unit but also respectively). In fact, when Ross went solo in 1969, Syreeta was one of the top candidates to replace her as the lead vocalist of The Supremes. However, the job ultimately went to Jean Terrell.
It took a while for Syreeta to make a name for herself, in terms of scoring her own hit single. But what she did do in the meantime was meet, fall in love with and marry Stevie Wonder. And that was besides being Stevie’s regular music collaborator, most notably during his “Classic Era”, i.e. the heyday of Wonder’s career.
Syreeta and Stevie met in 1968 and began dating in 1969. That year their first official collaboration (as co-writers) came out, which was It’s a Shame by The Spinners. That song went on to become a notable success.
The first time of note that Syreeta sang backup for Stevie was on 1970’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours), which was another track they co-wrote. That single proved to be a big hit and is one of the most recognizable songs in Wonder’s discography.
The couple eventually wed during September of 1970. It has been pointed that at the time, Syreeta was 24, and Stevie was only 20, not even a full-fledged, legal adult. That lack of maturity, if you will, may be one of the reasons why the marriage was shortlived, having only lasted until about the onset of the summer of 1972.
Where I’m Coming From, Stevie Wonder’s 13th studio album,
was co-written by Syreeta.
However, the pair did accomplish a lot musically. For instance, Syreeta co-wrote the entirety of Where I’m Coming From, Stevie’s 1971 studio album, with Wonder. She contributed backup vocals to that project also, including being featured prominently on its second single, If You Really Love Me.
The cover art to Syreeta’s first album.
In June of 1972, Syreeta, still a signee of Motown, dropped her own debut album, which was a self-titled effort. By that time she and Stevie were divorced, but Wonder still produced all of that project. Unfortunately, it didn’t fare well as far as chart and commercial success goes, having just barely broken the top 40 of Billboard’s Best Selling Soul LP’s (aka Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums).
The cover art to Syreeta’s second album.
During the mid-1970s, Stevie was in the process of establishing himself as one of the most-successful musicians in industry history. He was trending and extremely popular. And that may be why he lent his name to the title of Syreeta’s second album, Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta (1974). As with her first, Wonder produced the entirety of this effort. But also like the first, it failed to achieve any type of major success.
That would be the last album by Syreeta which was produced by Stevie Wonder. However he did participate on one song, Harmour Love, from her thrid album, One to One (1977).
Also, it has been pointed out by Wikipedia that Syreeta “continued to provide backup vocals” for Stevie Wonder up “until (his) 1995 album Conversation Peace“. So that means she was a behind-the-scenes’ collaborator throughout most of his recording career basically.
The cover art to the album Syreeta and Billy Preston
released together in 1981.
Syreeta did eventually achieve her own musical success circa the early-1980s. The biggest hit in her discography is With You I’m Born Again, a collaboration with Billy Preston, which came out in 1979. That song made it onto the top 5 of both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. And it was successful enough that the two vocalists became regular collaborators, even dropping an album together, Billy Preston & Syreeta, in 1981. So as fate would have it, Wright’s own short-lived musical heyday was alongside Billy Preston.
The cover art to Syreeta’s second self-titled album,
which proved to be the most-successful (on the Billbaord 200) in her discography.
But Syreeta did go on to release other albums. Her second self-titled LP, which was dropped in 1980, was the most successful of all her full lengths, as far as the Billboard 200 is concerned (where it peaked at #73). And she accomplished numerous other musical feats, such as briefly acting as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar from 1993 to 1995.
The songs that Syreeta released with Billy Preston have been more or less forgotten. What she has rather gone down in history for is having been Stevie Wonder’s first wife, the most notable romantic interest of his “Classic Era”, as well as someone he worked with constantly, perhaps more than any other musician, during that timeframe. Stevie’s “Classic Era” can be said to have unofficially begun with the experimental Where I’m Coming From. So it can be reasonably postulated that his love for Syreeta, as well as her artistic contributions to his career, helped bring about Wonder’s musical heyday.
According to Wikipedia, Syreeta and Stevie were married for 18 months. Wonder went on to have nine children and Syreeta, 4. However, they did not have any together.
Syreeta eventually died in 2004, at the age of 58. She fell victim to congestive heart failure, as a result of certain treatments she was receiving to combat bone and breast cancer.
ADDITIONAL TRIVIA
- Syreeta’s debut single, I Can’t Give Back the Song I Feel for You, was released by Rita Wright, as it was initially concluded that “Rita” was a better stage name than “Syreeta”.
- The specific date upon which Stevie and Syreeta got married was on September 14, 1970.
- Syreeta second husband was another professional musician, albeit a lesser-known one named Curtis Robinson Jr..
- Syreeta was born a Christian and more specifically a Baptist. But eventually, upon marrying her third and final husband (sometime after 1982), she became a Muslim.
- From the mid-1970s onward, Syreeta lived in Los Angeles, and she was eventually buried in nearby Inglewood Park Cemetary. But interesting to note is that prior to settling in L.A., she spent a little bit of time in Ethiopia, where Wright “worked as a Transcendental Meditation teacher”. Of further note, Stevie Wonder mentioned transcendental meditation” on his 1973 track Jesus Children of America.
- It was a teenaged Stevie Wonder who first encouraged Syreeta to begin writing songs.
- The aforementioned With Your I’m Born Again was part of the soundtrack to a 1979 basketball-related comedy called Fast Break.
- Besides Stevie, Syreeta also provided background vocals for the likes of The Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, Michael Bolton, George Harrison and Quincy Jones.
- Syreeta Wright retired from the game during the mid-1990s. But beforehand, she was briefly signed to Motorcity Records, a British label which specialized in “record(ing) new material with former Motown artists”. And by the looks of things, she was more popular across the pond than she was stateside.