Genius, Part II

Stevie moves into the slick & funky 70s with a batch of classic singles and a couple minor missteps.

Wonder proved his genius with great records like "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," "If You Really Love Me," "For Once In My Life," "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday," and "My Cherie Amour," and he took on the other musical giants of the day, successfully reworking the Beatles "We Can Work It Out."

The syrupy "Never Dreamed You'd Leave Me In Summer" exposes the Achilles heal that has always dogged Wonder's career; such esoteric records gave credance to critics who argued that Wonder was more interested in displaying his musical genius than entertaining his audience. But the cream has always outwayed the crud on Wonder records.

Buy this CD, GREATEST HITS VOL. 1, and both volumes of ORIGINAL MUSIQUARIUM to build an overview of one of America's true musical geniuses.

heaven help us all

when i think about the south side of chicago
and being 10 or 11 years old the first song that comes
to my mind is track# 10,it was perfect for
that time and that place, after the riots and
everything else it was on time.i'm buying
the disc just for that song.

the final conclusion of his motown era(1967-1971)

the period from 1967-1971 was stevie wonder's final period of musical growth from the motown hit machine.on this greatest hits collection(volume 2),it has material from his late 1960s and early 1970s period extracted from the albums:"for once in my life"(1968)"my cherie amour"(1969)/"signed,sealed,&delivered"(1970)and his final motown breakaway album the personal,social-political album his first full length album statement"where i'm coming from"(1971).

the songs on this second collection of his greatest hits are not in chronological order,but it provides a great reflection of his growth as a prolific songwriter from this four year period.the only song on this collection that is not available on his regular motown albums is 'travelin'man'(1967)which is another classic wonder recording.for some strange reason, it was omitted (along with other more original superior songs that were held in the vaults from this same 1967 period) by motown from being included on his 1967 album "i was made to love her"what a terrible mistake of omission by motown!and it(along with the other more superior songs)were replaced with filler remakes of other songs! it was written by ron miller and bryan wells and was produced by wonder's older mentor,clarence paul.'travelin'man'was originally released on wonder's triple record album "looking back" which was released by motown in 1977,and is also available on a double disc set entitled "essential stevie wonder" which includes rarities such as 'kiss me baby'(1965)which was written by stevie and his older mentor clarence paul/and a live firecracker remake of 'high heel sneakers'(1965)/'happy street'(1964)from the album,"stevie at the beach"/'don't you feel it'(1964)/and the rare original single 'i call it pretty music,but the old people call it the blues'(1962)which was written by berry gordy and clarence paul.