My memory of this song relates almost entirely to the impossibly high vocal in the bridge. So much so that I failed to appreciate there’s much more to it than mere vocal gymnastics.

For example the song is produced by Stevie Wonder, who also plays electric piano – the only instrument on the recording apart from a gently strummed acoustic guitar and the chirping of birdsong.

In terms of chart succes, Minnie Riperton will be remembered as a one-hit wonder who died at the tragically young age of 31. But there is so much more to her brief career than this song, which topped the charts in 25 countries.

Starting out in her home town, Chicago, with a girl group called The Gems, who made the 1967 Northern soul favourite My Baby’s Real under a different name (The Starlets), Minnie went on to sing backing vocals with scores of stars on the Chess label.

She recorded with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters and Etta James – and on Fontella Bass’s huge hit single Rescue Me – and went on to front a psychedelic-soul group called Rotary Connection, who are fantasticallly groovy and deserve to be more widely known than they are (which is basically ‘not at all’).

In 1970 she recorded her first solo album Come To My Garden with that band’s talented arranger, producer and orchestrator Charles Stepney, showcasing her extraordinary range, including that “whistle register” – an octave above a falsetto.

It was not a success (though it has since been rediscovered, especially the wonderful opening track Les Fleurs) and Minnie effectively retired, moving from Chicago to Florida to start a family with her husband Richard Rudolph.

Three years later an intern at Epic Record stumbled upon a demo and she was offered a record deal again. Moving to Los Angeles, she made her second album, Perfect Angel, in 1974, with her chosen producer, Stevie Wonder, working under the pseudonym El Toro Negro (‘The Black Bull’) because of his Motown contract.

The album’s highlight is The Edge Of A Dream, a powerful tribute to Martin Luther King. Lovin’ You, a lullaby Riperton and Rudolph wrote together to sing their daughter Maya to sleep, was only added to the album because they needed another track to make up the 40-minute running time.

Barely had it brought Minnie international stardom than she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer at the age of only 28, and given just six months to live. Despite the devastating prognosis, she continued to record and tour – she was one of the first ‘celebrities’ to go public with breast cancer – and became spokesperson for the American Cancer Society.

She died in July 1979 at the age of only 31.