"For Once in My Life" is a man who has finally found something worth celebrating. Stevie Wonder recorded it in 1968 as an anthem of arrival, a declaration that after years of disappointment he has something that will not let him down. Built on the tension between past pain and present joy. He has cried before. He has lost before. But this time is different. This time he has something worth holding on to.

Tony Bennett covered it in 1969 and proved the song works outside of soul. Stevie sang it as a young man discovering joy for the first time. Bennett sang it as an older man who has been through enough to know that joy this specific does not come around often. The same words. A different kind of gratitude. One version celebrates the find. The other treasures it.