Songs In The Key Of Life: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The two-disc album for Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder, used as a prop on the set of Scandal with vinyl records (a,b), album jacket (c), and paper sleeves (d,e).

The black vinyl records have center yellow labels with printed brown text including the Tamla logo, album title, artist, and track listing. The catalog number [T13-340C2] is printed at left and production credits and copyright [PRODUCED, ARRANGED and COMPOSED / BY STEVIE WONDER / © 1976 Motown Record Corp.] is at bottom center.

The front of the album jacket has a small illustration of Steve Wonder’s face in black against a bright white background. Surrounding the portrait are concentric rings in red, orange, yellow and white with organic, uneven textured edges. Printed in black script is [Songs In The Key of Life / Steve Wonder]. At the top left corner is a small white circle with black stylized text noting it is the collector’s edition. The jacket opens to reveal the same circular design with the portrait of Wonder from the front repeating across the design, gradually getting larger. The design continues on the back of the jacket, which lists the song titles followed by copyright and production information. There is a white price tag sticker on the bottom right corner as well as a white “TAMLA” logo.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1976
• Produced by: Tamla Records, American, 1959 - 1988
• Recorded by: Stevie Wonder, American, born 1950
• Used by: Shondaland, American, founded 2005
• Type: long-playing records
• Type: 45 rpm records
• Medium: vinyl with ink on paper and cardboard
• Dimensions: Diameter (vinyl records): 11 7/8 in. (30.2 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W x D (album jacket): 12 3/8 × 12 3/8 × 1/4 in. (31.4 × 31.4 × 0.6 cm)
• Dimensions: H x W (sleeves): 12 × 12 in. (30.5 × 30.5 cm)
• Place made: Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, United States, North and Central America
• Place used: Los Angeles, California, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Popular music
• Topic: Rhythm and blues (Music)
• Topic: Soul (Music)
• Topic: Television
• Topic: U.S. History, 1969-2001
• Object number: 2019.90.12.1a-e
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Walt Disney Television
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © Universal Music Group Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.