Stevie Wonder - Song Review: Greatest Hits - [CD]

Stevie Wonder (inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in '89) is the winner of 19 Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award (more Grammys than any pop music performer in history). This comprehensive set spans over 3 decades (1965-96) and contains 13 #1 hits (more than any other Stevie Wonder CD ever released). Along with such familiar favorites as I Was Made to Love Her," "I Just Called to Say I Love You" and "Superstition," this album contains the never before released "Stay Gold," from the film the Outsiders. Thirty or so of Stevie Wonder's biggest hits--many of them enduring classics--make up this double disc. That's the good news. The bad news is that they're sequenced here about as well (or maybe not) as your CD player's "random" function might do it. Leading off with "Part-Time Lover"--a major chart record, no doubt, but hardly the rouser you'd expect for an opener--is puzzling enough. It's when the programming starts veering from highlights of his self-produced period ("Sir Duke") to Motown assembly-line pieces ("My Cherie Amour") that the head-scratching really begins. And don't try to count the great moments that are missing. This will do in a pinch, but if you own no Stevie, be advised that better overviews of Wonder's career (the finest by far being the four-CD box At the Close of a Century) are available. --Rickey Wright