Stevie Wonder‘s 1972 track Maybe Your Baby made an appearance in the 1997 film Money Talks. That movie stars Chris Tucker and, in the main supporting role, Charlie Sheen.
Tucker can be considered a legendary African-American, Hollywood-based comedian. However, his filmography is terse, with Chris’s brief heyday harping back to the late-1990s.
It was during that era in which Money Talks was released, when Tucker was in top, leading-man form. Sheen also does his thing in terms of playing Chris’s more serious, albeit reluctant partner in crime. The plot itself isn’t anything to write home about, but I would say that the film is must-watch for fans of Tucker’s brand of comedy.
“MAYBE YOUR BABY” IN “MONEY TALKS”
Maybe Your Baby is not officially on the movie’s soundtrack. But it does play a noticeable, background role in a particular scene in which “Franklin” (Chris Tucker) is having an argument with his girlfriend, “Paula” (Elise Neal). I embedded the scene below for interested viewers. But warning – it does feature a lot of profanity, as well as liberal use of the N-word.
Maybe that’s why the song didn’t make the official soundtrack. Stevie is known for not allowing his works to be used in controversial ways. For instance, a couple of years before the release of Money Talks, Coolio dropped Gangsta’s Paradise (1995). As you may know, that track heavily relies on a sample/interpolation of Wonder’s Pastime Paradise (1976). And Stevie made Coolio remove profanity from Gangsta’s Paradise before approving said sample.
Also, I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but the way Maybe Your Baby was utilized in Money Talks is sorta out of context. The lyrics of the song, most simply put, are about a guy’s girlfriend cheating on him. But as can be gleaned from the above clip, that’s not what the conversation between “Franklin” and “Paula” is about. So maybe Chris or one of the makers of the film were feeling Stevie’s track so much that they included it nonetheless.
STEVIE WONDER & CHRIS TUCKER
Back in 2002, circa the height of his fame, Tucker hosted the 33rd NAACP Image Awards. During the opening of that ceremony (according to Pinterest), he and Stevie performed a song together. And according to YouTube, said song (which doesn’t appear to have been a full collaboration) was Wonder’s Higher Ground (1973),
There’s also a picture that Chris posted on Facebook in 2023 of himself alongside Wonder “at the Quincy Jones Birthday Celebration”. That event was held at the Hollywood Bowl, in recognition of the music mogul’s 90th birthday. Stevie performed therein, and a number of A-listers attended, besides himself and Tucker,
STEVIE WONDER & CHARLIE SHEEN
It does not appear, as publicly documented, that Sheen and Wonder ever interacted directly. However, there is an interesting story in circulation whereas Stevie, reportedly inspired by Charlie, donated a considerable amount of money to a young cancer victim named Jasmine Faulk. That all transpired in 2012. And by the looks of things, Jasmine did proceed to beat the cancer.
Since those days Sheen, due to his uninhibited sexual lifestyle, has become sort of a villain of the MeToo movement. But this goes to show that he has a good side also. In fact, Charlie had donated three times as much as Stevie to Faulk, even though it appears that, unlike Wonder, he did not have a pre-established relationship with her family.
CONCLUSION
I enjoy coming across these unexpected references to Stevie Wonder. And that’s especially true when they’re featured in a modern, big budget film like Money Talks. Stevie’s own heyday was all the way back circa the 1970s. So it’s refreshing when one of his works pops up in a contemporary piece of pop media, as if to say that the entertainment industry has not forgotten about his greatness.