Chili Peppers’ frontman Anthony Kiedis makes no bones about how deep his admiration for both Stevie Wonder and Jimi Hendrix lies, and here, on this remarkable Wonder cover, the two worlds collide heavily with the Peppers’ own blistering assimilation of contemporary West Coast rock. Wonder climbed the pop charts with ”Higher Ground” in 1973 and, while the Peppers’ weren’t so lucky on that front, their take on this soul classic has long been considered by many to be the one that really got the band’s balls rolling. Whipped into heavy rotation on MTV, the make or break moment for any band during the 1980s, ”Higher Ground” brought dirty soul to kids who’d barely been a glimmer in anyone’s eyes when R&B funked through the early 1970s. And, as it turned out, the kids couldn’t get enough of it. Glammed out, funky, tribal and unique, the Red Hot Chili Peppers rode the wave of ”Higher Ground” straight into their Blood Sugar Sex Magic hitmaker just two years later.