"Living for the City" was written and composed by Stevie Wonder, who also wrote its lyrics. It appeared as a single in November 1973, with "Visions" on the B-side, and as a track on the album Innervisions, released by Tamla on 3 August 1973. Wonder recorded the album between December 1972 and April 1973 at the Record Plant and Mediasound in New York, playing most of the instruments himself, with Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff as engineers. The album version runs 7:21, while the single is 3:41.
The lyrics follow a boy born into a poor Black family in Mississippi who travels by bus to New York, is framed for drug running, is sentenced to ten years and ends up homeless as an ex-convict. Its musical bridge consists only of sound effects and spoken dialogue. Critics regard it as one of the first soul hits to combine a political message with street sounds. It won the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song in 1974. It peaked at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100, at number 1 on the Hot Soul Singles chart and at number 15 in the UK. Rolling Stone ranked it 104th in its 2004 list of 500 Greatest Songs. Later versions were recorded by Ray Charles (1975, on Renaissance), Gillan (1982) and Sylvester (1986).
