Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

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This greatest hits album collects Stevie Wonder's first hits from 1963 to 1967. The only song that really standouts from when he was known as Little Stevie Wonder is the explosive live performance of "Fingertips" which went to number one. The other songs from that time like "Workout Stevie, Workout" try to capture that explosiveness, but don't manage to find it. As he got older and matured, so did his music and the songs started to show off his immense talents. "Uptight" is a pure classic as is "I Was Made To Love Her". He also started to develop and show a social conscious side with the brilliant "A Place In The Sun" and he takes Bob Dylan's folk anthem "Blowin' In The Wind" and turns it into a call and response, gospel flavored number.

released in 1968,this collection focuses on stevie's pre-teen material and material recorded in his late teens.this first volume of hits spans 4rom the period 4rom 1962-1967.this was during the period when motown's hits ran nonstop-a conveyor belt production assembly line and wonder was within the fast hit system during that time.the songs on this collection are from his sixties albums such as "recorded live:little stevie wonder
the 12 year old genius"(1963)/"stevie at the beach"(1964)/"uptight"(1966)/"down to earth"(1966)/"i was made to love her"(1967).this collection also includes wonder's early less than succesful single from 1962 'contract on love'alongside that of the fantastic 'i'm wondering'(1967)which is not avaliable on no album-but it is avaliable on this collection and some of his various compilation albums.it should have been on the "i was made to love her"album.wonder's first major hit"fingertips"is in edited form on this collection than from the original seven minute version.the songs on this collection are not in chronological order but this collection is a preview
of more things 2 come 4 his next collection of hits for volume 2 from 1967-1971.

In its original vinyl incarnation (as Tamla LP 282) this appeared in April 1968. It carried a good overview of Wonder's singles output from "Contract On Love" (12/26/62) through "I'm Wondering" (9/14/67). Everything that's here is great, and shows Stevie's child voice maturing into the assured masculine adult one we've come to know since. And the hits are solid, a heaping helping of the kind Motown turned out on all its' artists in the production line days. By the time of "Uptight" and especially "I Was Made To Love Her" Wonder was another full-fledged confident star, the same one he is today.

Not everything, however, from this maturation period was included in these 12 tracks. There were some commercially failed but interesting singles that didn't make the cut: "I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues," a two-part single (Tamla 54061) from May 1962, "Happy Street" (Tamla 54103, September 1964), "Kiss Me Baby" (Tamla 54114, May 1965) and "High Heel Sneakers" (Tamla 54119, 7/23/65). Hard-core Wonder fans have their work cut out for them seeking these even on vinyl, let alone CD. One could carp too, that "Fingertips" isn't in its full seven-minute length here; after all, Part 1 was no slouch, either. ("Someday At Christmas" was a 45 too, Tamla 54142, in time for the '66 season.) And by the by, the last Wonder single to feature "Little" in front of his name was "Castles In The Sand" (Tamla 54090, 1/16/64); "Hey Harmonica Man" (Tamla 54096, 5/21/64) was the first without it.

What's to be hoped for is that Stevie and Motown would consider re-issuing, in CD form, his 3-LP set from 1977, "Looking Back." It was essentially Stevie's entry in Motown's superb (and first) Anthology series on all the company's major artists. Ideally, a CD version would carry all 40 tracks that the three records did plus the missing nuggets mentioned above. (And, please, don't forget "Purple Rains Drops" this time around, either.) I'm glad I grabbed the vinyl version when I did; I've read elsewhere that Wonder had it quickly withdrawn. We'll see.

I just purchased this CD at the local Border's outlet....and I still think I spent too much. Outside of "Uptight" and "I Was Made To Love Her" there isn't much here to recommend. Do as I should and get his later compilations

This collection of Stevie wonder songs is true special, I like the song selection and price. Definitely a good gift or yourself or others haha

I first bought this album when I came back from Korea in the 60's. This was the beginning, the beginning of an allustrous career that would span over four decades, this was just the beginning.

It's true that for the most part, the pre-teenage "Little" Stevie Wonder was far from the peak at his game in his early years of recording, but this selection is really not that bad. He was a better harmonicist than singer at this point (who can deny the brilliance of FINGERTIPS? Unfortunately, only side 2 is on this set) but some of his early vocals have a youthful and energetic appeal. "Contract on Love" (with the Tempts from around 1962-63)has a Frankie Lymon type of streetcorner upbeat sound. "Workout Stevie" and "Hey Harmonica Man" are weak on vocals, but the Chromatic Harmonica (not an easy instrument to master-much less at age 12!) is the thing on these tunes. However, by 1966 his voice matured to its present condition and we get lovely tunes such as the version of "Blowing in the Wind" coupled with a nice duet from his mentor Clarence Paul, the classic "Hey Love" (love the "yeah yeah" near the end of the song) that R. Kelly ruined in an abomination during the 1990s, "I Was Made to Love Her," etc. that set the scene for all the wonderfulness to come. While as another reviewer correctly noted, hardcore Stevie fans will miss some good early stuff, this is for the more casual collector. Between this and "Stevie Wonder's Early Classics," you can get a good overview of where it all began for Steveland Morris Judkins.

This is such a great CD. It has great songs that propelled the quite young Stevie Wonder to Motown stardom. My favorite songs are the big hits "Uptight(Everything's Alright)", "I was Made to Love Her", and the lesser hits, "Hey Love", and "I'm Wondering". The CD also includes "Fingertips Part 2" which sold over one million copies, propelling little Stevie to stardom, however, I have never been a fan of this song, and have never been able to understand how it was such a giant hit. Finally, there are three other songs, which are not that well know, but are superb: "Contract On Love", "Hey Harmonica Man" and "Work Out Stevie, Work Out". This CD is early Stevie Wonder and no Stevie Wonder collection is complete without it. I would compare it to the early Beatles records during those same years (The Beatles being my favorite band) in terms of both the Beatles and Stevie Wonder turning out such amazing material.

This contains Stevie Wonder between 16 and 20 years of age singing early songs. "Uptight" and "I Was Made to Love Her" are classics as well as "I'm Wondering." This is the beginning of a career of a talented singer and songwriter.

Motown was still "The Sound of Young America" and Wonder was only just stepping out from under the "Little Stevie Wonder" nickname when his first Greatest Hits package was released in 1968, but he had already demonstrated enough of the multi-talent genius that would make him one of the true giants of popular music to fill the album with great, great records.

There are some of the classic Motown singles from his early days---"Contract on Love" and the incindiary "Fingertips" (has there ever been a more electric live recording? I love hearing the piano player trying to figure out what key Wonder's harmonica solo is being played in)---and a whole mess of songs from his incredible mid-60s stretch: "Uptight," "I Was Made To Love Her," and my favorite, "A Place In The Sun."

Buy this CD, GREATEST HITS VOL. 2, and both volumes of ORIGINAL MUSIQUARIUM to build an overview of one of America's true musical geniuses.