Sting vs. Stevie Wonder

Stevie's work is do deep that some of his utterly great songs never got significant air time.

Here's one example, that I just love:

LINK

Stevie Wonder and it's not even close.
"Superstition"
"I Wish"
"Sir Duke"
"Signed, Sealed, Delivered"
"Higher Ground"
"I Was Made To Love Her"

Also, his cover of "We Can Work It Out" is just plain awesome.

If we're including Sting's solo work as well as his Police work, Sting.

Meh. Sting has been popular as a solo artist and with Sting, but I still gotta pick my man Stevie Wonder.

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Has there been another artist that has written as many songs for other artists as for himself as Stevie?

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Burt Bacharach and I don't think it's even close. There are others but Bacharach was a prolific writer of hit songs that others performed.

List of songs written by Bacharach for others

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I pitted the two against each other because they're both fantastic songwriters... and because they both start with "St".

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Steve Winwood would have been a somewhat better comparison with Stevie Wonder.

Of course, Little Stevie's real name was Stevland Hardaway Morris and Sting's was Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner. Winwood's name is actually Stephen Lawrence Winwood.

With that out of the way, Wonder (Morris) was born in 1950 and Sumner (Sting) in 1951. Little Stevie had a record contract at age 11. Sting was a teacher and part-time jazz musician until forming the Police at age 26, relatively late to the "rock and roll" game.

From an influence perspective, there is no question: Wonder influenced contemporary jazz, funk, R&B, soul and rock that came after him. Both cats are talented multi-instrumentalists, as well as songwriters, but overall - Wonder did more, did more early and did more relying less on bandmates than did Sting.

I think Wonder wins this head-to-head, easily, despite an impressive body of work by Sting, both with The Police and solo - they kind of made folks re-think what a new wave rock and roll outfit could do - but they were, essentially, following Blondie's footsteps in the states with their big successes.

JtdC

Sting. He's covered a wide swath of music and I believe he's more of a true student of the craft. He can play any instrument he wants to and he loves incorporating other great musicians into his mix.