On This Day in 1982, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder Scored a No. 1 with One of the Worst Songs Ever Recorded

On this day (May 15) in 1982, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder started a seven-week run at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Ebony and Ivory.” The song about racial equality was an international smash hit. On the other hand, it is routinely voted one of the worst duets ever recorded.

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McCartney wrote “Ebony and Ivory” and released it in March 1982 as a single from his solo album Tug of War. “It came from something I heard someone say a long time ago,” McCartney said of the inspiration for the song. “Somebody was talking about how on a piano, there are black notes and white notes. It’s no good just having all the black notes. You need the white notes. It’s no good just having all the white notes. You need the two together because then you get harmony. Two together is perfect on a keyboard. So, my song, then, says, ‘Why don’t we do it like that?’” he explained.

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“When I wrote the song, I thought, ‘Maybe we don’t need to keep talking about black and white. Maybe the problem is solved.’ When I first wrote the song, which was maybe one-and-a-half years ago, I was thinking, ‘Maybe I missed the boat. Maybe it should have been written in the ’60s, this song,” McCartney recalled. “But, after I’d written it and we’d recorded it, you look around and there’s still tension,” he added.

The Legacy of Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s Hit Duet

While Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder had a huge hit with “Ebony and Ivory,” critics have been picking it apart since its release. Words like “saccharine,” “simplistic,” and even “insulting” appear in many reviews from the days following the song’s release and retrospectives alike. However, critics weren’t alone in their thoughts on the track.

In 2007, BBC 6 Music asked its listeners to vote for the worst duet ever recorded. “Ebony and Ivory” came in at No. 1. In 2009, Blender ran a list of the 50 worst songs of all time. McCartney and Wonder’s duet landed at No. 10 on the list.

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