Any Major Stevie Wonder Songbook Vol. 1
Today, May 13, Stevie Wonder turns 75 — a good moment to start a three-part Songbook dedicated to the great gamechanger.
These three Songbooks will feature the great Stevie classics, along with a bunch of songs he wrote for others. In fact, we kick off with one of those: Jermaine Jackson’s Let’s Get Serious, which also features Wonder on vocals. This is the only one of the songs written for others on this volume, but there will be quite a few more on the other two.
Stevie’s reign as a resident genius was relatively short, about a dozen years. That brilliance was already clear when he was a teenager in the 1960s, but it truly hit its stride when Wonder — barely out of his teens — demanded and received creative control. Through his twenties and into his early thirties, he produced some of the most astonishing soul music ever made.
For all intents and purposes, Stevie Wonder abdicated his throne in 1982 following the release of Original Musiquarium Vol. 1, a greatest hits collection covering his adult years, rounded out with four superb new tracks — including the lovely ballad Ribbon In The Sky, the blistering Frontline, and the magnificent Do I Do. The latter, a ten-minute workout in classic Stevie mode, closes Side Four rather abruptly — a fitting bookmark for the most creatively fertile period of Stevie’s career.
Then came the Mother’s Day schlock of 1984’s I Just Called to Say I Love You — a nadir in Wonder’s artistic output but also his commercial peak. I still recall that afternoon in 1984 when the radio presenter announced he’d be playing Stevie Wonder’s brand-new single — and the sense of betrayal I felt when I heard that ditty.
The same man who had created Superstition had now put out a nursery rhyme that sounded like it was recorded by a wedding singer. And people who didn’t get Superstition bought that drivel in droves — the same people who, a year later, would buy Jennifer Rush’s traumatising The Power Of Love, and a year after that, Chris De Burgh’s unforgivable Lady In Red. Wedding singer fare, indeed.
In truth, though, I Just Called… isn’t quite as awful as that. It is the arrangement that is teeth-grindingly bad. Listen to John Prine’s totally sincere, slowed-down country-folk version on this collection, and you’ll find a pretty decent song buried in there.
Still, my disappointment notwithstanding, I bought the Woman In Red soundtrack — which was more or less a Stevie Wonder album. A few bright spots aside, it felt like a declaration of artistic surrender.
I haven’t had much use for the follow-up, 1985’s In Square Circle, nor for Stevie’s next big hit, Part-Time Lover or the mawkish Overjoyed. Apart from the Jungle Fever soundtrack and the beautiful ballad For Your Love from 1995’s agreeable Conversation Peace album, none of the later releases has really made much of an impression. Unsurprisingly, not much from the post-1982 period will feature over the three volumes.
Anyway, who needs anything new when the old stuff never really ages? And there is still so much to rediscover in the Stevie Wonder songbook!
Most of the songs in this set were written by Stevie Wonder alone. Three are co-writes: Uptight (Everything’s Alright) and My Cherie Amour (with Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy), and Never Had A Dream Come True (with Syreeta Wright).
The other two volumes will follow in the coming months, leading up to a Songs In The Key Of Life Revovered collection for its 50th anniversary in September 2026. It’ll be the Year of Stevie!
As always, the mix is tined to fit on a standard CD-R — though that would mean missing out on the long but blistering bonus track — and includes home-uptighted covers as well as the text above in an illustrated PDF. PW in comments.
1. Jermaine Jackson – Let’s Get Serious (1979)
2. Sister Sledge – As (1977)
3. Rosetta Hightower – Signed Sealed Delivered (1971)
4. The Bar Kays – I Was Made To Love Her (1972)
5. Jackie Wilson & Count Basie – Uptight (Everything’s Alright) (1968)
6. The Jackson 5 – Never Had A Dream Come True (1970)
7. S.O.U.L. – My Cherie Amour (1972)
8. Marlena Shaw – You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (1973)
9. Donny Hathaway – Superwoman (1972)
10. Ahmad Jamal – Superstition (1973)
11. Ray Charles – Living For The City (1975)
12. José Feliciano – Golden Lady (1974)
13. Luther Vandross – Creepin’ (1985)
14. Paul Johnson – Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away (1987)
15. Incognito – Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing (1992)
16. Nancy Wilson – Ribbon In The Sky (1984)
17. Mel Tormé – All In Love Is Fair (1980)
18. John Prine – I Just Called To Say I Love You (2018)
BONUS TRACK:
19. Ray Barretto – Pastime Paradise (1981)
Previous Songbooks:
ABBA
Ashford & Simpson
Barry Gibb Vol. 1
Barry Gibb Vol. 2
Bill Withers
Billy Joel
Bob Dylan Volumes 1-5
Brian Wilson
Bruce Springsteen
Burt Bacharach & Hal David Vol. 1
Burt Bacharach & Hal David Vol. 2
Burt Bacharach’s Lesser-Known Songbook
Carole Bayer Sager
Carole King Vol. 1
Carole King Vol. 2
Chuck Berry
Cole Porter Vol. 1
Cole Porter Vol. 2
Elton John & Bernie Taupin
George Harrison
Gordon Lightfoot
Hank Williams
Holland-Dozier-Holland
John Prine
Jimmy Webb Vol. 1
Jimmy Webb Vol. 2
Jimmy Webb Vol. 3
Kris Kristofferson
Lamont Dozier
Laura Nyro
Leonard Cohen
Neil Diamond
Paul McCartney Vol. 1
Paul McCartney Vol. 2
Prince
Rod Temperton
Rolling Stones Vol. 1
Rolling Stones Vol. 2
Sly Stone
Steely Dan
Tom Waits
PW = amdwhah
Thanks for this. Always happy to hear versions of Stevie’s songs.
Just to pick a nit, the album after the Woman In Red soundtrack wasn’t titled Love Light In Flight, it was In Square Circle. I do like that album although obviously it’s not on a level with his 70s stuff.
I’m uptight, but it’s alright! Thanks for the Little Stevie tribute!
Thanks for your hard work. A lifetime concert memory for me was seeing Stevie launch into “I Just Called,” after a few bars stopping the band, saying “The mood doesn’t feel right in the crowd for that one,” then playing “As.”
Thanks for all your mixes over the years. they have been huge hits in the shop where I work.
One of my friend’s most cherished memory was the night about ten years ago when he got a call from the theater/venue he worked at, “GET OVER HERE! STEVIE WONDER”S HERE!” Stevie was hearing a new musical act, and was holding court at intermission. Out on the patio, with two huge bodyguards, everybody got 30 seconds with the Man.
Michael: Gosh, Mr. Wonder, My name’s Michael, it’s such an honor…
SW: Oh, I’m just STEVIE!
Michael; Stevie, in Chicago we used to close the restaurant every night playing [Stevie song}…
SW: Oh, I LOVE that song!
Michael: I love that song too!
[Bodyguards give the “wrap it up” gesture]
Michael: Well Stevie, thank you, your music has meant so much to me.
SW: Oh, that’s great Michael, I’m so happy!
Just an amazing beautiful person.
A much, much better choice!
You’re correct, of course. My mind must have slipped to the one redeeming moment on the Woman In Red soundtrack!
Lovely story. I wonder (hmmm…) what the closing Wonder song was.
Michael’s fav Stevie Wonder closing-time song was/is: “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”
Great closing number.