You Met Your Match

"You Met Your Match"
Single by Stevie Wonder
from the album For Once in My Life
B-side"My Girl"
ReleasedJuly 1968
Recorded1968
Genre
Length2:42
LabelTamla
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Stevie Wonder, Don Hunter
Stevie Wonder singles chronology
"Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day"
(1968) 		"You Met Your Match"
(1968) 		"For Once in My Life"
(1968)

"You Met Your Match" is a song written by Stevie Wonder, Lula Mae Hardaway, and Don Hunter that was released by Wonder on his 1968 album For Once in My Life. It was the first song Wonder produced in the studio.[1] "You Met Your Match" was released as a single where it reached No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart.[2]

Background

Cash Box said that it has a "pounding rhythm and a vocal performance that scours the emotions," calling the single an "exciting drive side."[3] Billboard called it a "pulsating rocker" and a "blockbuster."[4] Wonder biographer Steve Lodder described the song as being "based around blues changes" but said that it "lacks an 'earworm' hook of a melodic line."[1] "You Met Your Match" was one of the first songs to use a clavinet in a popular music recording.[5][1]

Chart performance

Chart (1968) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100 35
US Billboard Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles 2

References

  1. ^ a b c Lodder, Steve (2005). Stevie Wonder: A Musical Guide to the Classic Albums. Backbeat. pp. 49–50. ISBN 9780879308216.
  2. ^ Ruhlmann, William (2002). AllMusic Guide to Rock. Backbeat books. p. 1238. ISBN 9780879306533.
  3. ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. July 6, 1968. p. 14. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  4. ^ "Spotlight Singles". Billboard. July 6, 1968. p. 74. Retrieved 2022-01-13.
  5. ^ Lundy, Zeth (2007). Songs in the Key of Life. Boomsbury Academic. p. 77. ISBN 9780826419262.