On October 2, 1986, Stevie Wonder brought the In Square Circle tour to the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton, the middle of a New York swing that ran from Syracuse to two sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden, Buffalo’s Memorial Auditorium the night before, and RPI’s Fieldhouse in Troy two nights after. He was touring behind In Square Circle, the 1985 album that gave him the No. 1 hit “Part-Time Lover,” held the top of Billboard’s R&B albums chart for 12 weeks and won him the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance that February. A week earlier in Manhattan, his set had moved from “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” and “Higher Ground” through “Overjoyed” before closing on the protest song “It’s Wrong (Apartheid).” Forty years later, the Binghamton date is a snapshot of a 36-year-old Wonder at the peak of his ’80s run, bringing a Motown legend’s catalog to a Southern Tier arena.
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