Stevie Wonder - On the Right Track - Non-Album Tracks (1972-1973)

Stevie Wonder is a prolific genius. He's said to have written hundreds of songs that have never seen the light of day, not even on bootlegs. For instance, the musicians who played on the classic "Songs in the Key of Life" say there were many more songs they played on that were just as good as the ones that got released, and yet none of those have been released. Wonder has released almost no songs whatsoever as bonus tracks or in anthologies.

That said, he has so many of these songs that a few have slipped through the cracks just the same. Mostly, there are some that he's played live in concert and luckily got bootlegged. I consider his golden era to be 1972 to 1980. I've managed to make an album's worth of music from the first two years, 1972 and 1973.

I believe three of the songs here are cover versions (the "Close to You - Never Can Say Goodbye," "You Were My First, But Not My Last," and "Me and Mrs. Jones"), but the rest are originals. One song was officially released at the time: "To Know You is to Love You." That's a song that appeared on a 1972 Syreeta Wright album. In addition to being a talented Motown singer and songwriter, she also was married to Wonder for a few years in the early 1970s. The song is co-written between them and also performed as a duet by them. Incredibly, all the other songs are still unreleased in any form to this day. Generally speaking, I removed the audience noise to make them sound like studio tracks.

Added together, the songs here aren't as great as any of Wonder's albums at the time. But Wonder was on one of the hottest streaks in musical history, so even his leftovers are pretty damn good.

By the way, five more songs from that 1972 Syreeta Wright album, just called "Syreeta," are either written or co-written by Wonder, and yet he's never released his own versions of any of them. I didn't include any of those because Wonder doesn't prominently sing on them. But it's still an interesting album for a Wonder fan.

01 You've Got It Bad Girl [Edit] (Stevie Wonder)
02 [They Long to Be] Close to You - Never Can Say Goodbye (Stevie Wonder)
03 Let Me Know Just How You Feel - If You Really Love Me (Stevie Wonder)
04 To Know You Is to Love You (Syreeta Wright & Stevie Wonder)
05 [Fine Young Thing] You Are Too Much for Me (Stevie Wonder)
06 Soul Train Song (Stevie Wonder)
07 You Were My First, But Not My Last (Stevie Wonder)
08 The Way You Do It Last Night (Stevie Wonder)
09 Me and Mrs. Jones (Stevie Wonder)
10 I Think I'm on the Right Track (Stevie Wonder)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15852580/StevieW_1972-1973_OnRightTrck_atse.zip.html

I made the cover art using the cover of one version of the "Higher Ground" single artwork.