Product Description

From the 1963 US number one single 'Fingertips' through to the 1995 single 'For Your Love' this two cd-set brings together songs spanning Stevie Wonder's long career with US soul label Mowtown. The album also includes the UK number one singles 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' and 'Ebony and Ivory'Stevie Wonder's duet with the former Beatle, Paul McCartney.

Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Superstition
2. Sir Duke
3. I Wish
4. Masterblaster (Jammin')
5. Isn't She Lovely
6. I Just Called To Say I Love You
7. Ebony & Ivory
8. As
9. Never Had A Dream Come True
10. I Was Made To Love Her
11. Heaven Help Us All
12. Overjoyed
13. Lately
14. For Your Love
15. If You Really Love Me
16. Higher Ground
17. Do I Do
18. Living For The City
19. Part Time Lover

Disc 2:

1. For Once In My Life
2. Uptight
3. We Can Work It Out
4. Signed Sealed Delivered I'm Yours
5. Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday
6. I'm Wondering
7. My Cherie Amour
8. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
9. I Don't Know Why (I Love You)
10. A Place In The Sun
11. Blowin' In The Wind
12. Send One Your Love
13. Pastime Paradise
14. I Ain't Gonna Stand For It
15. Fingertips (Part 1 & 2)
16. Boogie On Reggae Woman
17. You Haven't Done Nothin'
18. He's Mister Know It All
19. Happy Birthday

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168 in Music
• Released on: 2005-11-28
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
In a career spanning four decades Steveland Judkins Morris has been many things: child star, funk hero, political chronicler, the saviour of Motown Records and depressingly, the instigator of the painfully schmaltzy R&B ballad. Thankfully, this exhaustive "Best Of...", timed to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his first appearance as Little Stevie Wonder, focuses mainly on the 1966-1980 glory years and his transition from incendiary soul man to voice of the 70s. The jackhammer beats, shout-along choruses and wailing harmonica peg "Uptight", "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and "I Was Made To Love Her" as three of the finest anthems of the Motown era, and "My Cherie Amour" as one of its sweetest love songs. But it was when he turned his attention to grinding keyboard grooves and social concerns that Wonder really came into his own. Inspired by ghetto funk and the unrest in 70s America he delivered three staggering albums, Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. Those albums highlights, "Living for the City", "Higher Ground", "I Wish", the gospel powered "As" and life-affirming Duke Ellington-tribute "Sir Duke", account for The Definitive Collection's standout tracks, while the rocking synth strut and ferocious horns of "Superstition" provide the defining moment. Next to such musical genius, the 80s slush of Motown's biggest ever selling single, "I Just Called To Say I Love You" seems particularly insipid. But like equally twee Paul McCartney duet "Ebony & Ivory", it's an easily skipped blip in an otherwise essential collection. --Dan Gennoe

Customer Reviews

Brillant
Bought this cd a few weeks ago and just can't stop listening to it. Whatever mode i am in, it cheers me up and makes me smile great album really worth getting.

ESSENTIAL STEVIE WONDER
Stevie Wonder (born Steveland Judkins Morris) began singing in a choir with his mother and siblings at a very early age at the Whitestone Baptist Church, which lay in his hometown of Saginaw.

By the age of 10, Stevie Wonder was a child prodigy. He proved a master on the piano, harmonica and drums and was adept at poetry and song-writing. Stevie was soon recommended by John Glover (who he was extensivley working with at the time) to Ronnie White, then a member of the fantastic, Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, who were signed to Detroits, Tamla Motown Records, founded by Berry Gordy who was instantly astounded by this child genius.

Dubbed Little Stevie Wonder in his early career, he was rapidly signed to Motown Records, home to some of the most important names in the history of black music including Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye. It was clear from an early age that Stevie Wonder indeed was a deeply gifted singer/songwriter and muscian.

Fingertips, released in 1963, proved an exhilirating masterpiece. Fingertips was virtually a harmonica instrumental but its just so totally infectious and caught onto the public like a magnet. Fingertips quickly catapulted to the top of the U.S charts and became the first in a long line of classics.

It was clearly his Motown work that remained some of his most popular and compelling output. The vibrant, Uptight (Everything's Alright) was a highly infectious affair as was the more sparse production of Yesterme-Yesteryou-Yesterday. The rolling undertones of playful funk on the classic, Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I'm Yours) were three classics that perharps were pure examples of how Stevie Wonder gradually adapted to more Pop styles where his work still vastly contained elements of traditional black rhythm and blues but was able to cross boundaries and break down many racial barriers (much in the way Diana Ross had). Though commercial in each of the tracks content, they all still firmly retained that earthy, soulful style, owing much to Stevies credible and unique vocal style.

Stevie proved to be a masterful lyric writer and conveyed an effortless flair for ballads such as on the passionate, timeless, My Cherie Amour (written with Henry Cosby) and the more subtle and profound, A Place In The Sun.

Like Marvin gaye, his work steadily progressed from the formulaic sounds of Motown to more creative, artistic and indepth material, releasing a string of quality studio albums throughout the 1970's. The startling Superstition was a sharp, nifty, funky number where Stevies voice effectivley cuts through the stark musical arrangements. He delivered a more anthemic message on the compelling, Higher Ground.

The awesome, Living For The City, was an exciting, severn-minute epic which echoed the restrictions and perils of ghetto life. Much of his work steered more into profound political and social issues that perfectly captured contemporary times and deservedly gained wide acknowledgement from critics.

Like Diana Ross (a close friend of the divas and he'd also written the dazzling compostion, Too Shy To Say for her 1977 studio album, Baby It's Me) his work eventually settled into the more Adult-Contemporary market that occupied the lower reaches of the charts yet fully remained an A-list novelty act. Such saccharine numbers like I Just Called To Say I Love You, may have become big cross-atlantic hits but this type of material lacks the dynamic of some of his earlier work.

Even so, Stevie Wonder continues to this day to enjoy a large and loyal following. This being the definitive collection of Stevie Wonders work makes it essential to any serious Soul/R&B/Motown collection.

The definitive Steve Wonder htis collection...for now...
The first collection of Stevie Wonder hits came out in 1968, when he was still a teenager. Of course, as a pre-teen "Little" Stevie gave Motown its first #1 album. In retrospect 1968 turned out to be a pivotal year in Wonder's career, which began covering Ray Charles songs and whose first hit "Fingertips, Part 2" actually came as a pre-teen, because that was the year he finally started writing most of the songs on his album (e.g., "My Cherie Amour"). The Wonder years definitively come in the early Seventies when he was putting out albums like "Music of My Mind," "Talking Book," "Innervisions," and "Songs in the Key of Life." This explains why the middle part of this collection is the best. Stevie Wonder is one of those artists where an album like this presenting his best work should give you impetus to go check out his best albums. Certainly there are artists where a good hits collection is all you need to have in your music library, but Stevie Wonder would not be one of those artists whose distinctive blend of odd riffs, incessant modulations and unpredictable melodies take advantage of his three-octave range. Yes, if you have but one Stevie Wonder album "The Definitive Collection" would be the one to get, but you should also explore at least the middle pair of the above referenced quartet.