Look at the artist, the title and the track selection and it’s clear that this album reviews itself. 20 Stevie Wonder number one hits – starting with ‘Fingertips’ and finishing with ‘So What’s The Fuss’ – all quite excellent of course, but I’m at a loss to see the logic. Maybe with no new product from Stevie on the horizon the Universal execs needed something to keep the great man’s name up there and in the process make a few bob for the company. But what a dull and uninspired idea! Yes, I know the album is part of Universal’s ‘Number Ones’ series so the selectors were restrained by the statistics but it’s still illogical. Stevie fans will have all the tunes (probably countless times over) and if you believe the gloomy CD sales figures, then casual buyers seem few and far between. Be that as it may, I’ve already said that the music is excellent (even ‘Ebony And Ivory’ and ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ have their charms) and when you hear stuff like ‘Part Time Lover’ and ‘That Girl’ again you realise how good stuff that was originally derided by some, really is. We don’t get the beautiful ‘Lately’ of course, not a number one, but there’s the almost-as-sublime ‘Overjoyed’ and we’re also offered ‘That’s What Friends Are For’ – a number one for Dionne Warwick if we’re being pedantic. But with classics like these, there’s no room for pedantry… great music, poor concept. The only innovation with the album is that it allows you internet access to tracks Stevie recorded at Abbey Road. My technology wouldn’t allow me to investigate – nor was I interested in the dozens of Wonderous ring tones advertised on the sleeve. My five point score is for the music – not that concept.
(BB) 5/5
