Ebony and Ivory "Billboard" Hot 100 charts. At the simplest level, the song is about the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano, but also deals with integration and racial harmony on a deeper, human level. The title was inspired by McCartney hearing Spike Milligan say "black notes, white notes, and you need to play the two to make harmony, folks!". The figure of speech is much older. It was popularised by James Aggrey in the 1920s, inspiring the title of the pan-African journal "The Keys", but was in use from at least the 1840s. Written by McCartney alone, the song
Lately (Stevie Wonder song) Lately (Stevie Wonder song) "Lately" is a song by American singer Stevie Wonder recorded for his album "Hotter than July" (1980). The song was covered by R&B group Jodeci and released as a promotional single for the live album "Uptown MTV Unplugged" in June 1993. Jason Elias at Allmusic retrospectively praised the song, believing that unlike some of Wonder's similar material, "Lately" in particular hit all the perfect emotional and musical notes. Of the song's emotional power itself Elias stated, "it's enough to make a listener fall prey to an old-fashioned cry." "Lately" was notably covered by R&B group Jodeci