On February 19, 1977, Wonder was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, an award that he had already won twice, in 1974 and 1975, for Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale. In all, Wonder won four out of seven nominations at the Grammys: Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Producer of the Year.

With time, the album became a standard, and it is considered Wonder's signature album. "Of all the albums," he told Q magazine (April 1995 issue), "Songs in the Key of Life I'm most happy about. Just the time, being alive then. To be a father and then… letting go and letting God give me the energy and strength I needed." Songs in the Key of Life is often cited as one of the greatest albums in popular music history. It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll; in 2001 the TV network VH1 named it the seventh greatest album of all time; in 2003, the album was ranked number 56 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Many musicians have also remarked on the quality of the album and its influence on their own work. For example, Elton John said, in his notes for Wonder on the 2003 Rolling Stone's list of "The Immortals – The Greatest Artists of All Time" (in which Wonder was ranked number 15): "Let me put it this way: wherever I go in the world, I always take a copy of Songs in the Key of Life. For me, it's the best album ever made, and I'm always left in awe after I listen to it." In an interview with Ebony magazine, Michael Jackson stated Songs in the Key of Life is his favorite Stevie Wonder album. George Michael cited the album as his favorite of all time and with Mary J. Blige covered "As" for a 1999 hit single. Michael also performed "Village Ghetto Land" at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute in 1988.

R&B singers in particular have praised the album – Mariah Carey generally names the album as one of her favourites, and Whitney Houston also remarked on the influence of Songs in the Key of Life on her singing. (During the photoshoot for her Whitney: The Greatest Hits, as seen on its respective home video, the album was played throughout the photo sessions, at Houston's request.) The album's tracks have provided numerous samples for rap and hip-hop artists; for example, "Pastime Paradise", which itself drew on the first eight notes and four chords of J.S. Bach's Prelude No. 2 in C minor (BWV 847), was reworked by Coolio as "Gangsta's Paradise". In 1995, smooth jazz artist Najee recorded a cover album titled Najee Plays Songs from the Key of Life, which is based entirely on Wonder's album. In 1999, Will Smith used "I Wish" as the base for his US number-one single "Wild Wild West". The song repeated the main melody of "I Wish" as a riff and some lyrics re-formed.

In April 2008, the album was voted the "Top Album of All Time" by the Yahoo! Music Playlist Blog, using a formula that combined four parameters – "Album Staying Power Value + Sales Value + Critical Rating Value + Grammy Award Value".

In December 2013, Stevie Wonder did a live concert performance of the entire "Songs in the Key of Life" album at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. The event was his 18th annual House Full of Toys Benefit Concert, and featured some of the original singers and musicians from the 1976 double-album as well as several from the contemporary scene.

Audio :

UME are using the original master tapes transferred to uncompressed files, mastered at 24bit/96kHz. This elevates Blu-ray Audio discs to a new, more pure, level - hopefully the most accurate replication of the original studio sound - when recorded. These can be played with, or without, your video system being on (depending on your set-up!). When my TV is on it shows the track, example:

 

It's a nice gimmick to have it on but if you don't want to, eventually, burn-in your screen - best to have it off. Too bad it doesn't move - even as a screen saver. When the album completes it does not 'loop' (my didn't anyway - I know some players can.) This would be another area of improvement for the format - the option to 'repeat'.

This Blu-ray audio is transferred at 2.0 channel. I love the lossless options. You can choose from 3 selections: Linear PCM at a whopping 4608 kbps, DTS-HD Master at 3682 kbps or Dolby TrueHD at 3189 kbps. Keen ears will note differences. I've played it at least 10 times and settled on the very robust LPCM which I tend to appreciate for older music that might have a looser high-end. I found this highly impressive, but it's certainly adds value to be able to change the option and sample another format (which one can do on-the-fly from either the onscreen display - see image above - or without your video display on - directly from the Blu-ray audio remote button.) I also listened to the entire album in each format. I'll never tire of having, and playing with, this ability. I can see liking one track in DTS-HD and another in TrueHD.

Does it sound superior to the SACD? Absolutely, the 24-bit has a strength to it that you don't get with the SACD. Songs in the Key of Life has a great range with all sorts of riffs, choir-like vocals, unique sounds (baby crying in Isn't She Lovely etc.) - these have added resonance via the uncompressed transfer. Wonder's narrative-like vocals Village Ghetto Land plus the added orchestral sounds brilliant. The trumpets opening Sir Duke sound rich and deep. Ditto for the piano in Knocks Me Off My Feet. The rhythm and harmony of The Pastime Paradise is hypnotic via this lossless format. What about his subtle vocals in Summer Soft? Perfect!