The great "lost" Stevie Wonder album

**soulster** · 05-08-2012, 10:29 PM

You know, if I combine the four "new" tracks from Stevie Wonder's "Original Musquarium I" and the "Woman In Red Soundtrack", I can create a sort of a lost Stevie Wonder Album. What do you think?

Side 1
1 - Love Light In Flight
2 - It's You
3 - Front Line
4- That Girl

Side 2
1 - I Just Called To Say I Love You
2 - Ribbon In The Sky
3 - It's More Than You
4 - Do I Do

Of course, for CD there would be no sides.

**Hotspurman** · 05-09-2012, 11:58 AM

I consider myself one of Stevie's biggest fans, having named my son Steven partly in his honour [[it was a joint thing - the other Steve I named him after was Steve Perryman, legendary captain of Tottenham Hotspur; get well soon), but I have to say I think I Just Called To Say I Love You one of the worst of his songs, ever! To think the man behind Superstition, Higher Ground, Living For The City, Sir Duke, I Wish et al should only achieve a UK #1 with I Just Called To Say! So whilst this makes a good album, it's not great for that very reason.

**kenneth** · 05-09-2012, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by Hotspurman

I consider myself one of Stevie's biggest fans, having named my son Steven partly in his honour [[it was a joint thing - the other Steve I named him after was Steve Perryman, legendary captain of Tottenham Hotspur; get well soon), but I have to say I think I Just Called To Say I Love You one of the worst of his songs, ever! To think the man behind Superstition, Higher Ground, Living For The City, Sir Duke, I Wish et al should only achieve a UK #1 with I Just Called To Say! So whilst this makes a good album, it's not great for that very reason.

I so agree. So insipid. If there was ever a song that seemed to be written just for the purpose that it might be used in a commercial [[and it eventually was), that was the song.

**Hotspurman** · 05-09-2012, 12:26 PM

The success of I Just Called To Say I Love You seemed to inspire a run of forgettable tracks, including Ribbon In The Sky and Tomorrow Robins Will Sing. I instantly fast forward whenever any of these come on my ipod.

**Ngroove** · 05-09-2012, 12:45 PM

Originally Posted by kenneth

I so agree. So insipid. If there was ever a song that seemed to be written just for the purpose that it might be used in a commercial [[and it eventually was), that was the song.

...Was it at least beautiful when done on Cosby Show?

**kenneth** · 05-09-2012, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by Ngroove

...Was it at least beautiful when done on Cosby Show?

I guess it's this way for me. By almost anyone else, it would be an okay song. By Wonder, it just seemed to be a real throwaway.

Was he the one who sang "Ebony and Ivory" with Paul McCartney, or was that Michael Jackson? Another piece of dreck in my opinion. But a hit nonetheless.

**thommg** · 05-09-2012, 03:39 PM

Originally Posted by Hotspurman

The success of I Just Called To Say I Love You seemed to inspire a run of forgettable tracks, including Ribbon In The Sky and Tomorrow Robins Will Sing. I instantly fast forward whenever any of these come on my ipod.

I disagree with you on Ribbon In The Sky. I think that is one of Stevie's most beautiful songs.

**wichmanne** · 05-09-2012, 04:02 PM

There is a real "lost" Stevie Wonder album from this period. I think it was called "People Move, Human Plays". It is guessed that some [[or most) of this ended up on In Square Circle.

I agree that Ribbon In The Sky is a great track, one of Stevie's best ballads. Along with Overjoyed and Shelter In The Rain, one of the great "later period" ballads.

As for I Just Called To Say I Love You, I agree the released production is not really worthy of Stevie but check it out in concert now [[Live At Last DVD for example) and it sounds much, much better. It even won over the Glastonbury crowd a year or so back. Who would have guessed that was possible 20 years ago?

More importantly than all these musings......where is the new album Gospel Inspired By Lula????

**kenneth** · 05-09-2012, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by wichmanne

More importantly than all these musings......where is the new album Gospel Inspired By Lula????

That was his mother's name, wasn't it? Are there really plans for such an album? Oh, would I love to hear that.

**soulster** · 05-09-2012, 04:49 PM

Originally Posted by Hotspurman

The success of I Just Called To Say I Love You seemed to inspire a run of forgettable tracks, including Ribbon In The Sky and Tomorrow Robins Will Sing.

"Ribbon In The Sky" predates "I Just Called To Say I love You" by two years.

**soulster** · 05-09-2012, 04:51 PM

Originally Posted by Hotspurman

The success of I Just Called To Say I Love You seemed to inspire a run of forgettable tracks, including Ribbon In The Sky and Tomorrow Robins Will Sing.

"Ribbon In The Sky" predates "I Just Called To Say I love You" by two years.

"I Just Called To Say I Love You" is a horrible song, but I included it on my "lost" album because it's still the kind of tune he would have added to a regular SW album if he had created one. And, he didn't release much new material from 1982-1984. I had to fill it with something.

**jobeterob** · 05-09-2012, 07:22 PM

There is no question that I Just Called To Say I Love You has been soundly criticized and I suppose it is a simple, lyrically pretty mindless song. Many critics say it was the end of Stevie's "creative" career.

But.........it is probably his most successful song, both airplay and sales.

Does every song have to be complex and deep? Can't he have simple fun with a catchy melody and have his committed fans accept and embrace?

I like the song; there is a part in it where it just stops and he then pick up the punch a little bit and it is the catchiest hook; in the same way that Upside Down is a series of hooks that pauses and restarts with a little bit more punch near the end.

It seems to fit nicely with your other songs.

**kenneth** · 05-09-2012, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by jobeterob

There is no question that I Just Called To Say I Love You has been soundly criticized and I suppose it is a simple, lyrically pretty mindless song. Many critics say it was the end of Stevie's "creative" career.

But.........it is probably his most successful song, both airplay and sales.

Does every song have to be complex and deep? Can't he have simple fun with a catchy melody and have his committed fans accept and embrace?

I like the song; there is a part in it where it just stops and he then pick up the punch a little bit and it is the catchiest hook; in the same way that Upside Down is a series of hooks that pauses and restarts with a little bit more punch near the end.

It seems to fit nicely with your other songs.

To each his own. After all, there's no accounting for taste!

**Motown4Ever518** · 05-09-2012, 10:24 PM

I Just Called To Say I Love You, hmmmm....I have been lucky enough to have been in love in the past twenty years, and have done things as the song suggests. When it came out, I did consider it quite lame, but let's not forget that it was a single lifted from the Woman In Red Soundtrack, not selected to be the first single from an album of new material. It fit the movie, which Luis Bunuel, or Fredrico Fellini did not have to look over their shoulder because of this cinematic masterpiece gaining on them. It fit the movie, and it takes incredible talent to produce something basic. I always thought as evidenced by the cha-cha-cha at the end of the song that the song was Stevie positioning his tounge in check anyway.

**jsmith** · 05-10-2012, 02:24 AM

I seem to recall that Stevie turned up at the UK [[Wembley) concert for the big 'Ethiopia Famine Relief' charity event.
He had a 'computer' type device with him that he had loaded the 'only' [[?) copy of an album full of new tracks onto .... whilst away from this device, it was stolen & he never did get it back.
Guess that qualifies as another 'lost' album.

**Hotspurman** · 05-10-2012, 04:10 AM

I may have been a bity hasty with regards to Ribbon In The Sky, having had another listen to it last night, but I still stand by my opinion of I Just Called To Say I Love You and Tomorrow Ribbons Will Sing.

My own view is that Stevie raised the bar so high, thanks to the tracks I mentioned above, plus You And I, All In Love Is Fair and He's Misstra Know It All, that anything that dips below that mark is going to be considered somewhat inferior. As someone mentioned, in the hands of other singers, I Just Called might be considered good, but for Stevie...

**candykamaine** · 05-10-2012, 03:38 PM

Originally Posted by jobeterob

There is no question that I Just Called To Say I Love You has been soundly criticized and I suppose it is a simple, lyrically pretty mindless song. Many critics say it was the end of Stevie's "creative" career.

But.........it is probably his most successful song, both airplay and sales.

Does every song have to be complex and deep? Can't he have simple fun with a catchy melody and have his committed fans accept and embrace?

I like the song; there is a part in it where it just stops and he then pick up the punch a little bit and it is the catchiest hook; in the same way that Upside Down is a series of hooks that pauses and restarts with a little bit more punch near the end.

It seems to fit nicely with your other songs.

I agree with you.

**davidr** · 05-11-2012, 09:48 AM

How about these

Teach me tonight[[with Levi)
Angie Girl
Hold me
I don't know why i love you

David

honest man · 05-11-2012, 03:50 PM

Since reading this thread, i ca n't get [I just called to say] of my head, what a wonderful song from a wonderful time in my life, i love this song for that reason alone,i always think of this song and my lovely late mum, i remember she taped Diana singing it at the oscars[i neve r knew about it].i was living away from home,and she played it for me when i came home at Xmastime,love it and the memories,cheers.

**Ngroove** · 05-11-2012, 03:54 PM

My first impression of that song myself, was I thought it was beautiful, having song ingrained in me since childhood, watched and heard it blended with Disney on “DTV”.