Paul McCartney Has a Unique Nickname He Uses for Stevie Wonder
Paul McCartney developed a bond with Stevie Wonder by collaborating on “Ebony and Ivory”. The track was a massive hit, and the pair have been friends ever since. McCartney is an admirer of the “Superstition” singer and gave him a nickname that is worthy of his talent.
Paul McCartney uses ‘Wundurr’ as a nickname for Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder is an influential musician who has impacted multiple genres, including R&B, hip-hop, and blues. He was a child prodigy who signed with Motown at 11 and topped the Billboard charts with “Fingertips” at the age of 13.
In an interview with GQ, McCartney said he knew about Wonder’s early rise and often teased him about it. Wonder once told him that kids his age used to mock him by calling him “Wundurr”, short for Wunderkind. Since Wonder is blind, McCartney would call him “Wundurr,” and the “Sir Duke” singer would immediately know it was Paul.
“I know some of his old stories, so I can joke with him and take the mickey,” McCartney said. “He was originally ‘Steveland Morris’ and he was in a little blind school in Detroit. He was just one of the blind kids who happened to be musically gifted. He went to Motown to make ‘Fingertips’, and then he was famous.”
“He came back as ‘Little Stevie Wonder’,” he continued. “So he once told me all the blind kids in the school used to call him ‘Wundurr’. They didn’t like him and were jealous of him. So now when I see him and if we pass in the corridor, I say ‘Wundurr,’ and he immediately knows it’s Paul. We have little things in common, which is cool.”
McCartney considers Stevie Wonder a ‘musical monster’
Even though he likes to joke around with Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney is awed by his talent. He followed his career from his days as a child prodigy, and the two first met when Wonder was 16. They developed a bond throughout the years and eventually recorded a song together, where McCartney could truly see how talented Wonder is in person.
“I’ve always been an admirer from the early days when we first heard him as ‘Little’ Stevie Wonder with ‘Fingertips’. Then I met him on and off and went to his shows,” McCartney said. “Eventually, I asked him if we could record together ‘Ebony and Ivory’. I spent some time with him in Montserrat to make that record. As guys, you can have a good laugh – he’s a lovely fellow. I just admire him so much, and I think that it is kind of mutual. He’s always saying really nice things about me. He’s such a musical monster. You sit down with him at the piano immediately, he’s off.”
How did ‘Ebony and Ivory’ perform on the charts?
“Ebony and Ivory” was released in 1982 as the lead single for McCartney’s third solo album, Tug of War. The track was a duet by McCartney and Wonder in which they called for racial harmony. It is one of McCartney’s biggest hits, peaking at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks. It also reached No. 1 in several countries, including the U.K., France, and Canada.
It is one of the few duets of McCartney’s career, but he would later have similar success with “Say Say Say”, featuring Michael Jackson. McCartney also had another recent collaborative hit, working with Kanye West and Rihanna on “FourFiveSeconds”.
