Waldo Jaquith

“A Touch of Wonder,” indeed.

Remember The Cosby Show episode with Stevie Wonder, “A Touch of Wonder”? Here’s the best scene from that episode, where the Cosbys are in the studio with him, and he’s sampling their voices to incorporate into a song. What a mind-blowing moment that was, though sort of a slow burn, my first exposure to the then-nascent remix culture. I read an interview with Kid Koala a few years ago, in which he cited this bit as the inspiration for his entire career. I wonder how many other people recall this scene with particular fondness?

Fun fact: Lisa Bonet performed “I Just Called to Say I Love You” on this episode, and performed it again in High Fidelity. Why that’s not available on the movie soundtrack, I cannot imagine.


3 Comments

I’d totally forgotten that scene until you brought it up. It is a Top 10 TV Scene in my book. Ranks up there with about 5 MASH scenes, 1 scene each from Hogan’s Heroes, Baa Baa Black Sheep (sense a theme?), and South Park (Underpants Gnomes), and the entire series of LOST — for me, at least.

Posted by va displaced on 1 February 02009 @ 10am

that’s totally awesome.;

however, my favorite Stevie Wonder TV moment is still his 1972 appearance on Sesame Street:

an original song called “1-2-3 Sesame Street”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN_CIn7Z8rk

teaching Grover how to sing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8lUnI35Sd8

and a spectacular 7-min live version of “Superstitious”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ul7X5js1vE

(his 1983 appearance with Eddie Murphy on SNL, wherein Murphy coaches him through a Stevie Wonder sound-aliike contest, is pretty good too — but unfortunately not really available on the internet.)

Posted by james on 2 February 02009 @ 3pm

James, I’ll without hesitation give up one of my MASH scenes for that Sesame Street Grover scene.

Posted by va displaced on 2 February 02009 @ 9pm