***Update*** I got quite a few factual errors wrong when I first wrote this post, and I’d like to thank Vaid Bharath for pointing those out in the comment below. I’ve since editing the content and to my knowledge everything below is correct.
Stevie Wonder’s contribution to Michael Jackson’s memorial service was a beautiful, hauntingly appropriate tribute. “I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” is a track off Wonder’s 1971 Motown album Where I’m Coming From. Wonder’s late ex-wife Syreeta Wright wrote the lyrics to “I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer”. Wright is also responsible for the lyrics to Stevie’s hit “Signed, Sealed and Delivered I’m Yours” among a number of other songs on Wonder’s Where I’m Coming From, Music of my Mind, and Talking Book. Stevie also mentioned a demo a song he wrote that Jackson sang, called “I Can’t Help It”. Michael included the track in his Off the Wall album.
Talking to Michael, Stevie said today:
“I never, ever imagined that I would write a song that would be sent to Quincy Jones, and he would hear it, and my sister Renee would give me the cassette and here it back and be amazed that you [Micahel Jackson] did this song. And so incredibly so, you did this song.”
Below is a YouTube photo montage featuring Michael singing “I Can’t Help It”:
“I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” Lyrics:
I never dreamed you’d leave in summer
I thought you would go then come back home
I thought the cold would leave by summer
But my quiet nights will be spent aloneYou said there would be warm love in springtime
That is when you started to be cold
I never dreamed you’d leave in summer
But now I find myself all aloneYou said then you’d be the life in autumn
Said you’d be the one to see the way
You know I never dreamed you’d leave in summer
But now I find my love has gone awayWhy didn’t you stay?
Here’s Stevie Wonder singing the beautiful, jazzy tune along with 1974’s “They Won’t Go When I Go”:
Download the mp3 of Steve Wonder’s “I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer”
