Songs in the Key of Life is the eighteenth album by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, released on September 28, 1976, by Motown Records. It was the culmination of his "classic period" albums. The album was recorded at the Record Plant in Hollywood, Sausalito Music Factory in Sausalito, and The Hit Factory in New York City. An ambitious double LP with a four-song bonus EP, Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and most critically acclaimed albums of his career. In 2005, it was ranked number 56 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and it was preserved into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, which called it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."