Stevie Wonder - Ribbon in the Sky - Non-Album Tracks (1977-1981)

Stevie Wonder had a series of classic albums from 1972 to 1976, culminating with 1976's "Songs in the Key of Life." But he didn't tour to support that album, and he basically disappeared for a couple of years. He returned in 1979 with the "Journey through the Secret Life of Plants," a soundtrack to a documentary film virtually nobody saw. But that mostly instrumental album generally baffled listeners and sold poorly. It wasn't until 1980's "Hotter than July" that he seemed to get back on track with another popular and widely acclaimed album.

The album collects the stray tracks from this period. It turns out Wonder wasn't entirely silent in 1977 and 1978. He sang a live duet with the jazz great Ella Fitzgerald, which was released on an obscure Fitzgerald album. He also co-wrote and played keyboards on two instrumentals for a 1977 Ramsey Lewis album, so I've included those two songs here.

He also was part of a curious collaborative effort, a 1978 single called "Pops, We Love You," honoring "Pops" Gordy, the beloved father of Motown head Berry Gordy. The song features Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, and Smokey Robinson, which sounds awesome, in theory. But I'm not a fan of the song. For one thing, it's a generic disco song that hasn't aged well. But also, it's an example of too many cooks spoiling the broth: four charismatic and popular singers all trying to share the lead on one song are too many.

So what I've done is to try to create a "Wondercentric" edit that brings Stevie Wonder's portion of the song to the forefront. Wonder's portion of the song comes near the end of it, and is relatively short. So I've cut out the start of the song and began with that. Normally, that would have made the song very short indeed. But it turns out there was a B-side all-instrumental continuation of the song with a nice flute solo. So I've edited the flute solo onto the end of the part with mostly Wonder's vocals. I know this is kind of a strange edit, but it's the only way I could come up with a version of this song that I would want to repeatedly listen to.

The rest of this album is mostly unreleased material. One song of note is "Let's Get Serious." Wonder c0-wrote this for Jermaine Jackson, who had a top ten hit with it in 1980 in both the US and Britain. Wonder never released a version of it himself, but he began playing it in concert sometimes from 1980 onwards, so I've included a live version.

In 1982, Wonder released a greatest hits album with the name "Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I." It included four new songs. But actually, two of them, "That Girl" and "Ribbon in the Sky," were released as singles in late 1981. So I've included those here.

UPDATE: On October 23, 2022, I updated the mp3 download file. I found one original song I'd previously missed called "Don’t Make Me Wait Too Long." It's an unreleased studio outtake from the sessions for his 1980 album "Hotter than July."

01 You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder & Ella Fitzgerald)
02 Spring High [Instrumental] (Ramsey Lewis & Stevie Wonder)
03 Pops, We Love You [A Tribute to Father] [Wondercentric Mix] (Diana Ross, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye & Stevie Wonder)
04 Love Notes [Instrumental] (Ramsey Lewis & Stevie Wonder)
05 I Can't Help It (Stevie Wonder)
06 Garden of Love (Stevie Wonder)
07 Perfect Angel - Lovin' You (Stevie Wonder)
08 When You've Lost Your Way (Stevie Wonder)
09 Don’t Make Me Wait Too Long (Stevie Wonder)
10 Let's Get Serious (Stevie Wonder)
11 One Never Knows [I Never Knew Her Name] (Stevie Wonder)
12 Reflections of You [Sky Blue Afternoon] (Stevie Wonder)
13 That Girl (Stevie Wonder)
14 Ribbon in the Sky (Stevie Wonder)

https://www.imagenetz.de/c65Gm

The album cover is simply the cover of the "Ribbon in the Sky" single.