The time period of this album, 1972 to 1974, is when Wonder went from being a mere star to being a superstar. He'd had a lot of hits dating back to 1963, but a majority of them had been written by others. He had still been growing into his talent (he was 13 years old in 1963) and his creative direction had been largely controlled by the Motown record company. But he signed a new contact with Motown in 1971 that gave him total creative control over his music. From the release of his album "Music of My Mind" in early 1972, his sales steadily grew, and so did his reputation.
Thus, it's not too surprising to see that the number of covers of his songs blossomed as well. Note Volume 1 in this series covers an eight year time period, and this one covers only a two year time period. Creatively, Wonder was on fire, writing more quality songs than he knew what to do with. Many songs apparently still sit in the vaults, unreleased, but he also gave some songs away.
The songs here that Wonder didn't record himself are tracks 5, 7, 10, and 11. Out of those, the best known has to be "Tell Me Something Good," by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan. It hit Number One on one of the U.S. singles charts in 1974.
But even more famous than that is "Superstition," another Number One song, and a song Rolling Stone Magazine put on their top 500 songs on all time. In fact, for the 2021 version of that list, it holds the 12th spot! Originally, that was going to be a song Wonder planned to give away to guitarist Jeff Beck. Wonder actually wrote it while in a recording studio with Beck. Beck came up with the drum beat, and Wonder improvised the song to it on the spot. Beck soon recorded his own version and planned to release it on his next studio album. But various delays pushed back the release of that album many months, into 1973. In the meantime, higher-ups at Motown heard the song and thought it was so fantastic that they insisted Wonder put out his own version.
In 1970, Wonder married Syreeta Wright. She was a singer signed to the Motown label as well, but Motown hadn't done much to push her career. Wonder and Wright divorced in 1972, just two years later. However, they remained close friends, and collaborated a lot musically. Wright sometimes co-wrote songs from Wonder's albums, including the huge hit "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" in 1970.
But more often, many of Wonder's songs wound up on Wright's albums. In particular, for her 1974 album "Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta," he wrote or co-wrote with her every single song on the album. Most of them were never put on his own albums. I've selected one song from that album here, "Cause We've Ended as Lovers." I also could have chosen the excellent Jeff Beck cover, but I went with this one because it's the original and it has lyrics, while the Beck version is an instrumental. I put another Wright cover from that album on the next volume in this series.
But if you want even more Wonder covers from his classic period, check out that album in particular. It's almost like another classic Wonder album that happens to be sung by an excellent female vocalist instead of him. I concur with the allmusic.com review of that album, which states: "All in all, 'Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta' is the shining moment of Syreeta's solo career and a lost highlight of 1970's soul in general. Any fans of Stevie Wonder owe it to themselves to track this album down because it makes a worthy companion to albums like 'Talking Book' and 'Innervisions.'"
This album is 57 minutes long.
01 I Love Every Little Thing about You (Syreeta Wright)
02 Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day (Michael Jackson)
03 Superstition (Jeff Beck)
04 Superwoman (Main Ingredient)
05 Bad Weather (Supremes)
06 You've Got It Bad Girl (Quincy Jones)
07 To Know You Is to Love You (B. B. King)
08 Until You Come Back to Me [That's What I'm Gonna Do] (Aretha Franklin)
09 Blame It on the Sun (Jose Feliciano)
10 Tell Me Something Good (Rufus featuring Chaka Khan)
11 Cause We've Ended as Lovers (Syreeta Wright)
12 Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing (Main Ingredient)
13 Golden Lady (Jose Feliciano)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/o69AW1bL
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/XKATnEKbTv2D0uR/file
The cover photo is from 1974. I don't know any details.
Thanks
ReplyDelete