He's Misstra Know-It-All

"He's Misstra Know-It-All"
Single by Stevie Wonder
from the album Innervisions
B-side	"You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover"
Released	April 1974
Recorded	April 5-8, 1973
Studio	Record Plant, New York City Mediasound, New York City
Genre	Soul, pop[1]
Length	3:25 (single version) 5:38 (album version)
Label	Tamla
Songwriter(s)	Stevie Wonder
Producer(s)	Stevie Wonder Malcolm Cecil Robert Margouleff
Stevie Wonder singles chronology
"Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" (1973) "He's Misstra Know-It-All" (1974) "You Haven't Done Nothin'" (1974)
Official audio
He's Misstra Know-It-All (album version) on YouTube

"He's Misstra Know-It-All" is a single by Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label, from his Innervisions album, which reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1974.^[2] 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.^[3] Horn sounds are played on the Moog synthesizer that is programmed by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff.^[4] Ethereal flute-like sounds are provided by the TONTO modular synthesizer that is also programmed by Cecil and Margouleff. Willie Weeks, on electric bass, is the only other musician.^[3] Towards the end of the song the mood changes to a stronger feel, more strident singing and with hand-claps emphasising the beat, half-beat and quarter-beat.

"He's Misstra Know-It-All" was re-released 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". It has been alleged that this is a reference to United States' President Richard Nixon, who resigned the same year the song was released.^[5][6][7]

1. ^ McFerrin, John. "Stevie Wonder- Innervisions". johnmcferrinmusicreviews.org. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
2. ^ "Official Charts Company - Stevie Wonder". Official UK Charts. July 23, 2012. Archived from the original on January 27, 2021. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Wonder, Stevie. Innervisions (Liner Notes). Tamla Motown. 1973.
4. ^ ^{a b} Williams, Chris (July 15, 2021). "Expanding Soul". wax-poetics. Retrieved December 8, 2024. Originally published in Digital Content, August 7, 2013.
5. ^ Chappell, Arthur (January 10, 2014), "The Story In The Song - Stevie Wonder - He's Misstra Know It All", Bubblews. Archived April 22, 2015, at archive.today.
6. ^ Frick, Daniel E. (2008), "Bibliography", Reinventing Richard Nixon: A Cultural History of an American Obsession, University Press of Kansas, p. 303; ISBN 9780700615995.
7. ^ Lynskey, Dorian (May 4, 2007). "Readers recommend: Songs about politicians". The Guardian.
8. ^ "Stevie Wonder – He's Misstra Know It All", discogs.com.
9. ^ "Stevie Wonder – He's Misstra Know It All" Archived December 5, 2014, at the Wayback Machine at Discogs.

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