Customer Reviews

12 Year Old Genius

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Fingertips pt. 2 is one of the greatest recording of live music anywhere. The emotion and chaos of that one track sums up pretty everything that is wonderful about live music--in particular live soul. It's the beat, the audience participation, the unpredictability. When Stevie brings the band back into the song's finale and confusion breaks out (listen for "what key? what key?" in the background)...you'll get it. Or you got no soul.

Put your hands together for this little set recorded live in Motown's studios.Neither Motown nor Stevie Wonder had

really begun to break into their signiture sounds quiet yet but

Wonder really lets 'em have it on spirited Ray Charles covers like "Drown In My Own Tears".But the REAL highlite hear is the

FULL version of his first smash hit "Fingertips",featuring that

utterly identifiable harmonica solo-he's SO underrated on that instrument-and his young Michael Jackson-like voice.It's the only big hit he had before his voice changed.

I was lucky enough to find a cutout CD of this album in a record store when I was 16 after having digested his classic 70's albums and it sent me out looking for his other

early albums-all of whitch were luckily in print back then in

1996 on CD and many of whitch are now worth quite alot.But if you bump into this under similar circumstances GET IT!No more to say!

I should have been at this concert, but I was not born yet! Stevie Wonder is really amazing throughout that live performance. The atmosphere is really palpable, and the interaction between Stevie and his fans is unbelievable. The CD is presented in a nice sleeve which is identical to the original vinyl album. The icing on the cake is that this version is a super high quality CD made in Japan using SHMCD technology; as a result, the sound quality is really good! Fingertips has never sounded so good!

Now this is actually Stevie Wonder's 3'rd album release. His first two,a tribute to Ray Charles and an instrumental album had done nothing (if even had been released before this). So somehow it was decided that since Stevie's main strenghs at this point came from his energy packed live shows that this would be the best way to present him to the public successfully. This was also the first time anyone heard Stevie sing and of course "Fingertips" became his first hit single with it's strong sing-a-long/call and response flavor. From there Stevie segues into "Soul Bongo" and another Clarence Paul piece "La La La La La",another soul-jazz rave up in a similar style. Needless to say the remainder of the album finds young Stevie (barely 13 at the time despite the album title indicating him as 12) covering Ray Charles hits such as "(I'm Afraid) This Masquerade Is Over","Hallelujuah I Love Her So","Drown In My Own Tears" and "Don't You Know" with....that odd Etta James meets Mary Wells style vocal inflection Stevie had before his voice changed-showing how much he interpreted vocally the way an adult female singer might.

Even though his singing at this early phase will,at the very worse be an aquired taste for some people there's no doubt the amount of energy,enthusiasm and pure spirit is oozing out of Stevie's presense on this album. It comes out not only in his playing but in his youthful and spirited renderings of Ray Charles' hits. The seeming tunnel vision of his create focus as a mini Ray Charles would basically end after this album though. Stevie had by 1964 already moved onto greener patures musically and would spend the next several years following only his own musical course as opposed to those of others. But even other greats such as James Brown started in more interpretative and imitative phases while developing their own style of music. So for anyone interested in Stevie's "first career" when he was still very much bound by his influence but still rips and roars through whatever he's doing there's no better place than this.

It was many years ago, as a teenager, that I first owned this album. I played it over and over again.

The first tracks feature the 12 year old's instrumentation - harmonica and bongos. Probably only bongo aficionados will appreciate the latter, but it is interesting very early Stevie and shows his versatility and precociousness.

I loved the harmonica and singing on the first track, and the truly electric atmosphere on both sides of my sixties LP version of the album. Stevie and his audience really relate! I love the singing on "side 2", and am still haunted by the emotiveness and vocal style of the boy genius on all singing tracks, especially Drown in My Own Tears.

stevie wonder's first live album,"recorded live-little stevie wonder the 12 year old genius" recorded in 1963 was the first album 2 put him on the map on the music charts.he was the first artist 2 have a number one position on the pop singles chart,the pop albums chart and the r&b singles chart all at the same time with this live set.with 'fingertips'being the only biggest hit single release from this live album.'fingertips'was really a rave-up that little stevie would do from previous shows just 2 get the audiences 2 feel the excitement of his live sets.with just the line,'everybody say yeah!'was the start of it all.his previous singles were not selling,but his live shows were exciting.motown hit paydirt when they came up with the idea of recording little stevie live.the show was recorded at the regal theatre in chicago.'fingertips'was 7 minutes of nonstop excitement.his backing live band was giving little stevie the cue 2 end his hot performance of the song but the young performer ignores them and continues 2 play on.little stevie continues with an excerpt from 'mary had a little lamb' which was done on his harmonica.little stevie's older mentor clarence paul tries 2 escort little stevie from the stage,but the young kid breaks away from him 2 continue performing.the backing band is confused.the bass player 4 mary wells-joe swift was on stage 4 the next set and asks the band "what key?what key?"was caught in the middle of confusion owever,near the song's end little stevie is hyped up and so is the audience.

the original version of 'fingertips'is an instrumental from his 'the jazz soul of little stevie'album. other selections from this live set include the live version of 'soul bongo'which was written by clarence paul and marvin gaye.stevie delivers a onetwo punch performance on the bongos.on 'la la la la la',little stevie tells his audience 2 repeat after him singing 'la la la la la'and then asks them 'you get it?'afterwards there is an call and response from stevie and the audience and from there little stevie explodes into his drumming.in the last half of the show,little stevie does a cover versions of '(i'm afraid)the masquerade is over'and cover versions of his idol ray charles.with songs such as 'hallelujah i love her so'of which little stevie also plays piano;and the show closers 'drown in my own tears'and 'don't you know'of which little stevie also plays piano on.overall this is a nice live album coming from a young kid- a legend in the making...

If it weren't that he was blind this wouldn't have been successful. I heard Fingertips Part 1&2, and it's just stupid. I feel that the public just overlook the fact that there's nothing to this except for alot of shouting, a few words repeated over and over again, and then harmonica thrown in to spoil the orchestra. I heard this for the first time Saturday Jan. 23rd, 1988, and it's stuck to me like a cancer. It's time for the chemotherapy, and removal of this before it becomes malignant. I'm not prejudiced, or insensitive to people with handicaps. I would've ripped this to shreads if it were a white person, and no handicaps. This is just raw sewage that needs to be rid of.