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If it weren’t for Jeff Beck — the guitar god who died suddenly at 78 on Wednesday after contracting bacterial meningitis — then Stevie Wonder wouldn’t have had one of his biggest hits.
Indeed, “Superstition” — the lead single from Wonder’s classic 1972 album “Talking Book,” on which he famously sang that “when you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer” — was originally intended to be for Beck before it became the ultimate lucky charm for the 72-year-old R&B legend.
A fan of Wonder’s music, Beck was invited to play guitar on “Talking Book” by the Motown icon. An agreement was made between the two master musicians that, in return for Beck playing on the album — which became the first in a golden-era string of Stevie LPs that was followed by 1973’s “Innervisions,” 1974’s “Fulfillingness’ First Finale” and 1976’s “Songs in the Key of Life” — Wonder would write him a song.
