Lately is a Stevie Wonder song from his nineteenth studio album Hotter than July, released in 1980. It was issued as a single in 1981 by Tamla, and it sits in the R&B and soul genres as a tender ballad. The song tells a story of longing and fear of losing a loved one, with lyrics about premonitions, doubt, and the ache of a relationship that may be slipping away. It runs about 4 minutes and 5 seconds, and its B-side is If It’s Magic; Wonder wrote and produced the track. Lately charted at number 3 in the United Kingdom and number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and it was later covered by Jodeci for Uptown MTV Unplugged in 1993, a version that topped the US R&B chart and reached number 4 on the US Hot 100.
