Stevie Wonder-Greatest Hits (1968)


Artist: Stevie Wonder

Title: Greatest Hits

Label: Tamala

Format: LP

Cat #: T 282V1

Year of Release: 1968

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US reissue

Listed Condition: VG+/VG

Sell Date: 6/27/21

Sell Price: $3.99

Discogs Last Sold: 4/13/21

Low: $1.49 NM/VG+

Median: $3.38

Average: $4.35

High: $10.11

Current low price: $5.45

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 1

Have/Want: 25/16

Where Sold:New Orleans, LA

Time it took to sell: 6 years

Where and When Bought: Worcester That's Entertainment $2.99 early 80's

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A

Sad To See It Go: No

At first glance, this looks like a cheapo Motown compilation from the 60's.  Cursory glances can be deceptive.  This is actually a good overview of Stevie's material before he turned 18, with a set within the set of his hits before his voice changed.   

So this compilation is a bit more artfully done than Looking Back, which I wrote about a few months back.  At the time, Looking Back isolated the period before the higher ground period roughly from Music Of My Mind to Songs In The Key of Life where maybe only Marvin Gaye and possibly Al Green were peers.  In the time of this Greatest Hits, that music hadn't existed yet.

Greatest Hits in 1968 covered roughly the same period as the more exhaustive 6 side of Looking Back did in 1976.  Neither of these were made for the "completist" retrospective era with proctology level liner notes and alternate takes completely cast aside.  These were hits compiled for the budget bin and maybe to be found under someone's Christmas tree.  This Greatest Hits cover looks like a gift wrapping you might find in a department store somewhere before you put some ribbons and bows on it.  

Young Stevie, like old Stevie was a gift to mankind and the first 5 years make for an excellent single disc retrospective.  "Fingertips, Pt. 2" is a weird #1 single for 1963 or any other time.  Raw and live, with the audience part of the song.  There might be some disturbing P. T. Barnum novelty signifiers as to why this was a massive hit, but I'm gonna just say great one-of-a-kind charting record and leave it at that  

The more "mature" teenage Stevie we hear on side one rattles off a songbook that mere mortals of any age could never achieve: "I Was Made To Love Her," "Uptight" and a great take of Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind"  stand the test of time, decades gone.  Side two tells the story of the even younger years in 5 songs where Little Stevie Wonder became not so little anymore.  Work out Stevie, Work Out!

This album makes the case that sometimes less is indeed more.


 

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