Track Listing

1. Did I Hear You Say You Love Me - Stevie Wonder, Gary Olazabal
2. All I Do - Betty Wright, Eddie Levert, Gary Olazabal, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Walter Williams
3. Rocket Love
4. I Ain't Gonna Stand For It - Charles K. Wilson, Gary Olazabal, Ronnie Wilson, Stevie Wonder
5. As If You Read My Mind
6. Master Blaster (Jammin') - Stevie Wonder, Gary Olazabal
7. Do Like You
8. Cash In Your Face
9. Lately - Stevie Wonder, Gary Olazabal
10. Happy Birthday

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12669 in Music
• Released on: 2000-05-08
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 46 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
By the time Hotter Than July was released, in 1980, Stevie Wonder's most fertile period was already over. The smash run that began 1972 (Music of My Mind and Talking Book) and ran through Innervisions (1973), Fulfullingness' First Finale (1974) and 1976's Songs in the Key of Life was winding down. There was still enough magic left in Wonder for one last hurrah, however--and while July isn't its forerunner's equal in the heights it scales or consistency, it's still bears the marks of Wonder's best work: there's the regretful "I Ain't Gonna Stand For It", the reggae-crossover "Master Blaster (Jammin')", an oft-imitated classic (see Elvis Costello's "Watching the Detectives", for one); and the enormously successful paean to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Happy Birthday". --Randy Silver

CD Description
By the time HOTTER THAN JULY was released in 1980, Stevie Wonder had spent the '70s making his transition into adulthood by redefining pop music and winning widespread public and critical acclaim (along with a boatload of Grammys). As was usually the case on previous albums, Wonder's first release of the '80s featured him playing a variety of instruments, supported by a number of famous guests including Angela Winbush, Michael Jackson, Betty Wright and members of the Gap Band.
The result was an album of breezy love songs ("Rocket Love"), deliciously upbeat pop ("I Ain't Gonna Stand For It") and a thinly disguised tribute to Bob Marley ("Master Blaster [Jammin']"). But the one song that Wonder gave himself most to was "Happy Birthday", a relentlessy positive compostion specifically written as part of this gifted artist's fight to get Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday recognised as a national holiday. Stevie Wonder eventually won that fight andby the mid-80s, his dream had become a reality.

Customer Reviews

not as good as he used to be, is he?
Hotter Than July might not be up with his very best work, sure, but it's still a masterpiece by anyone else's standards. This is especially true when you consider that it was released in the early 1980s, when popular music wasn't exactly at its peak. Lately is as good a song as his finest 70s work, such as Knocks Me Off My Feet or Big Brother. And yes, Master Blaster is awesome. One more thing though. Elvis Costello is a genius. I already knew this to be true, but now I know it's not just in the field of music! Not only did he rip off Master Blaster as your reviewer points out, but he then jumped in a time machine, went back to 1977 (three years before Stevie recorded the song) and released Watching the Detectives first. Amazing!

It all went downhill after this!
From the opening bars of the cooooool "Did I hear you say you love me?" we are taken on a journey through the mind of a genius who was just preparing to give his talent away to an average bloke in the street. "All I Do", "Rocket Love" and "Lately" are all beautiful ballads that bring a tear to your eye but it is the five songs in the middle of the album that do it for me. They are upbeat and nearly as funky as his '70's stuff. Buy "Hotter than July" and think about the great albums that COULD'VE followed this but didn't.

Hotter than....er....'Characters'.
If you're looking for the evidence that somehow Stevie Wonder "lost" his genius that was so perspicuous during the 'Music of My Mind', 'Talking Book', 'Innervisions', 'FFF', and 'Songs in the Key of Life' era, then here it is manifested in 'Hotter Than July'. It was remastered in 2000 when Stevie's 'classic' motown albums were brought bang up to date so that you didn't have to crank up your volume knob just to hear a whisper of a sound. Now although this album contains the gorgeous 'Rocket Love', 'Master Blaster' and the down-right funky 'Ain't Gonna Stand For It', it's really a very hit and miss affair. His next album, excluding the soundtrack to 'Woman In Red' was 'In Square Circle' in 1985. It's a shame this didn't get remastered because, although at first sounds like a heavily synthesised, unfocused mess, reveals itself to be the album of songs that is more cohesive and satisfying than 'Hotter Than July'. Buy it by all means, but expect it to fall to the bottom of your Mr.Wonder collection. Still, I'd rather think that he just "misplaced" his genius and is desperately searching for it. God bless the guy.