They Won't Go When I Go
{{Short description|1974 song performed by Stevie Wonder}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox song
| name = They Won't Go When I Go
| cover =
| alt =
| type =
| artist = Stevie Wonder
| album = Fulfillingness' First Finale
| released = July 22, 1974
| recorded = 1974
| studio =
| venue =
| genre = Soul
| length = 5:59
| label = Motown
| writer = {{hlist|Stevie Wonder|Yvonne Wright}}
| producer =
}}
"They Won't Go When I Go" is a song co-written and performed by Stevie Wonder from his 1974 album Fulfillingness' First Finale.
This song is the only one on the album that Wonder did not write by himself. His co-writer was Yvonne Wright, who co-wrote songs with Wonder for other albums.James E. Perone (2006), [https://books.google.com/books?id=HISHiLVxVnIC&pg=PA62 The Sound of Stevie Wonder], Praeger/Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 61, {{ISBN|978-0-275-98723-7}}.
Wonder performed this song, along with "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer", at Michael Jackson's memorial service on July 7, 2009.
Composition
The song has been considered a "retro composition", where comparisons of the piano part to the style of Chopin and the Baroque passacaglia or chaconne technique—a repeating bassline in a minor key and in triple metre—can be drawn. The song is also noted to have a "funeral march" like tone.{{cite book|author= Perone|title=The Sound of Stevie Wonder: His Words and Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HISHiLVxVnIC&pg=PA62|year=2006|isbn=9780275987237|pages=62–}} There is clear allusion to the 1850 German chorale tune "O mein Jesu," the setting of Thomas Kelly's 1805 Protestant hymn "Stricken, smitten, and afflicted." Critics noted that the song takes a more dramatic tone than most of Wonder's other compositions. The fact that the song specifically says "They won't go when I go" was said to imply the friends Wonder is talking about may get to heaven eventually, just not before he does.{{cite book|author=Steve Lodder|title=Stevie Wonder: A Musical Guide to the Classic Albums|url=https://archive.org/details/steviewondermusi00lodd|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=Backbeat|isbn=978-0-87930-821-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/steviewondermusi00lodd/page/136 136]–}} Interpreted more broadly as a hymn, the song is the cry not just of Wonder, but the faithful in general, awaiting a second coming where they are taken and others are not.{{cite book|author= Holy Bible|title=(NKJV) Matt 24:38-42|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+24%3A38-42&version=NKJV}} Many consider this song to be a dark consequence of Wonder's 1973 car accident.
Covers
- George Michael covered the song for his second solo album, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1, in 1990.{{Cite web|url=http://www.whosampled.com/cover/52171/George-Michael-They-Won%2527t-Go-When-I-Go-Stevie-Wonder-They-Won%2527t-Go-When-I-Go/|title=George Michael's They Won't Go When I Go|website=WhoSampled|access-date=2016-03-06}}
- Josh Groban covered the song on the Japanese bonus track edition of his fifth studio album, Illuminations, in 2010.
- Kanye West opened his set at the Museum of Modern Art's "Party in the Garden" event with a cover of the song on May 10, 2011.{{Cite news|url=https://pitchfork.com/news/42506-video-kanye-west-covers-stevie-wonder/|title=Video: Kanye West Covers Stevie Wonder
|work=Pitchfork|access-date=2020-10-19|language=en}}
- Camille recorded the song for her second studio album, I Sing Stevie: The Stevie Wonder Songbook, which received an Independent Music Award nomination for Best Tribute Album, in 2014.{{cite web|title=14th Annual Independent Music Awards: Tribute Album|url=http://www.independentmusicawards.com/imanominee/14th/Album/Tribute-Album|website=independentmusicawards.com|publisher=Music Resource Group LLC|access-date=2015-05-03|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150328222552/http://www.independentmusicawards.com/imanominee/14th/Album/Tribute-Album|archive-date=2015-03-28}}
- Chance the Rapper did a cover of the song as part of a surprise NPR Tiny Desk Concert in early June 2017.{{Cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/event/music/533112160/chance-the-rapper-tiny-desk-concert|title=Chance The Rapper: Tiny Desk Concert|work=NPR.org|access-date=2017-07-18|language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Stevie Wonder}}
{{George Michael}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Songs written by Stevie Wonder
Category:Song recordings produced by Stevie Wonder
{{1970s-single-stub}}