"He's Misstra Know It All" | ||||
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Single by Stevie Wonder | ||||
from the album Innervisions | ||||
B-side | "You Can’t Judge a Book by its Cover " | |||
Released | April 1974 | |||
Format | 7" 45 RPM | |||
Genre | Soul | |||
Length | 6:08 (full-length version) | |||
Label | Tamla | |||
Writer(s) | Stevie Wonder | |||
Stevie Wonder singles chronology | ||||
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"He's Misstra Know It All" is a 1974 UK hit single by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label, from his Innervisions album, which reached #10 on the UK Singles Chart in May 1974[1] The song takes the form of a mellow ballad with a steady beat, principally a solo performance with Wonder providing lead vocal, background vocal, piano, drums, handclaps and congas. Ethereal flute-like sounds are provided by his TONTO modular synthesiser. Willie Weeks, on electric bass, is the only other musician. Towards the end of the end of the song the mood changes, to a stronger feel, more strident singing and with hand-claps emphasising the beat and half-beat.
The song was released again, in 1977, in both the UK and US, as the B-side to Sir Duke.
The song is essentially a long description of a know-it-all confidence trickster character who is a "man with a plan", who has a slick answer to all his critics and who has "a counterfeit dollar in his hand."