Additionally, with many of the Covered albums I've posted in the last six months or so, I've tried to concentrate on the songwriters responsible for the brilliant Motown singles of the 1960s and 1970s. Most of those songwriters had little to no success being stars themselves, but there are a few exceptions, such as Smokey Robinson and Ashford and Simpson.
The musical genius of Stevie Wonder is hard to dispute. The introductory paragraph of his Wikipedia entry says "He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Wonder is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. " He's sold over 100 million records, and has had dozens of hit singles. But I think what most people don't appreciate is just how often he's written songs for others that he's never released on record himself. I found an article that lists 130 such songs, and even that is probably incomplete.
Every song Stevie Wonder wrote for other musicians
He would still merit inclusion in my Covered series if those 130 songs were the only ones he ever wrote or co-wrote, and he'd never released any music under his own name, because they include some classic hits, such as "Tears of a Clown," "Tell Me Something Good," and "It's a Shame." But of course he did do all those great songs and albums on his own. So this series is a mix of covers of songs Wonder made famous with his own versions, as well as songs he never recorded himself. But I've tried to emphasize the latter, since even serious fans of his music probably aren't family with many of those.
In this series of albums, I've tried hard to avoid including any versions performed by Wonder himself. So often the best version I found comes a long time after the original version by Wonder. So if you notice a song you think should be included is missing, the odds are very good I've chosen a version that appears on a later album. As an example, "You Met Your Match" was a hit for Wonder in 1968, the time frame of this first album. But the version I chose is from 2009, so it appears on "Volume 7."
Wonder also had hits with many songs he had no role in writing, so they're not included in this series at all. That was especially true of the 1960s. For instance, his first really big hit, "Fingertips, Part 2" in 1963, was written by others. That was also the case for "Castles Made of Sand," "Nothing's Too Good for My Baby," "Blowin' in the Wind," "A Place in the Sun," "For Once in My Life," "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday," "Heaven Help Us All," "We Can Work It Out," and more. But while you won't find any of those here, most of them can be found on "Covered" albums I've posted by other songwriters in the Motown stable, or will be with future posts.
Wonder was a child prodigy, having his first hit, "Fingertips, Part 2," when he was only 13 years old. It took a few more years before he started to really impress with his songwriting. His breakout year in that respect was probably 1966. As usual for these albums, the songs are in chronological order by year (you can see the details in the mp3 tags), and the first six songs here are from 1966. Already, his songs were being covered by the biggest names in Motown, and beyond.
With each of these albums, I'm going to try to point out the songs I've chosen that Wonder never released himself. For this album, that's tracks 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, and 17. In retrospect, it's a shame he didn't release most of these himself, since his 1960s albums generally weren't that strong. That would change drastically in the 1970s, when his albums were consistently solid and yet he still had dozens of additional good songs to give away.
This album is 55 minutes long.
01 Uptight [Everything's Alright] (Nancy Wilson)
02 Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever (Four Tops)
03 All I Do Is Think about You (Tammi Terrell)
04 Let's Talk It Over (Marv Johnson)
05 Just a Little Misunderstanding (Contours)
06 You're the One for Me (Marvin Gaye)
07 I Was Made to Love Her (Beach Boys)
08 The Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
09 I'm in Love [And I Know It] (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
10 Hey Love (Bettye LaVette)
11 I Don't Know Why [Don't Know Why I Love You] (Rolling Stones)
12 It's a Shame (Spinners)
13 Never Had a Dream Come True (Jackson 5)
14 Make My Water Boil [Loving You Has Been So Wonderful] (David Ruffin)
15 My Cherie Amour (Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)
16 We'll Have It Made (Spinners)
17 Keep Him like He Is (Syreeta Wright)
18 Heaven Help Us All (Ray Charles)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/ec7DEwVR
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/uQLkWairwCrN2ak/file
The cover photo is from 1966. I don't know more about it.
Thanks
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