I've goota go with Innvervisions.
****, that album is just dope ;)

Just watched Jonathan Ross try to play drums in Stevie Wonder's band on TV...he was shit.

The point is, it put me in mind of this;

Songs in the Key of Life, for me. I love Sir Duke, I just cannot be unhappy when this song is playing.

This album is chock-a-block full of great material, the amount of covers and samples from this album testify to that.

That's one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs! Some of the best vocals in any song ever IMHO.

i watched him on Jonathan Ross and he did three songs at the end, absolutely amazing, anybody going to see him perform ought to think themselves very lucky.

I'm honestly (blasphemy incoming) not a fan of Stevie's 70's material, by-and-large. However, of the three albums in the poll, I went with SitKoL. "Another Star" and "Isn't She Lovely" are superb numbers :)

I love him so much!he's fantastic!
Do I Do, Maybe your baby, i was made to love her, Boogie on Reggae woman, i'm gonna stand for it, for once in my life!
I saw him in Milan on 26th september, he left me without words...
I screamed for all the concert!

I voted Talking Book as it's the only one I have. I've got some learning to do, I know

The jazz band I play in at school plays Sir Duke. It is such a feel good song.

Aye, great music about how great music is.

Most of Stevie's early works are classics and should be enjoyed by all the youngsters of today. In addition, most if not all of his hits should never be covered by any other artist cuz they would just ruin it. Songs in the Key of Life is around the time my cousins and I were just getting into music. It's the best.

My appreciation goes about as far as Innervisions, which is truly a great album. Unfortunately I find that much of Stevie's other stuff is lyrically simplistic and bland. The music's often somewhat remarkable, though.

Stevie Wonder, I feel the need to add, is not the greatest African American solo artist of all time. That accolade goes to Prince, who is imo more talented and undoubtedly has a lot more depth.

I never got the love for Songs In The Key Of Life. The first half, great as it is, does not make up for the second half which seems to be filled up with some of the most boring, innocuous songs I've ever heard.

Songs in the Key of Life is the most successful Stevie Wonder project in terms of singles...

It is fantastic!

It produced 5 singles, out of 17 songs, over a period of 3 years...... Out of those 5, the only genuinely successful pop hits were I Wish and Sir Duke. Not particularly impressive when you look at the actual facts.

Innervisions had more serious hits than SitKoL. 3 major r&b chart toppers, and there were only 9 songs on the album. Innervisions is much better than SitKoL in pretty much every way and I struggle to see for a second why any music critic or journalist, or FAN for that matter, would see otherwise.

I know! It's almost as though everyone has their own opinions and tastes. Crazy bastards! :crazy:

Personally, I think Talking Book is better than either of those albums.

lol. I understand people have their own opinions and tastes. But there are always motivations behind those opinions and tastes, and usually you can understand what the motivations are. My point is that I cannot understand what possible motivation there could be for preferring SITKOL over Innervisions, given that the former is overly long and contains a bundle of especially boring duds.

I agree that Songs In the Key Of Life is overly long and has some duds ("Village Ghetto Land" comes to mind as a particularly hideous example) but I think the best songs on the album are much better than the best songs on Innervisions. For that reason I think I'd have to rate Songs In the Key Of Life somewhat above Innervisions.

Bit of a exaggeration. Prince is good but Stevie Wonder blows Prince out the waters vocally even in (song writing ability) IF your point was Prince is a better singer than Stevie. Prince is average best vocal. His a great musician though but so is Stevie Wonder. In my opinion, I think its fair to say Stevie Wonder is ONE of the greatest black solo artists of all time because HE IS. Marvin and Stevie both.

I love all of Stevie's work I really can't pick one but Songs in the key of life from the list.

I never really got in his music, but I really respect him for really putting work in his song and his impact on music in general.
however I can't get past that scene from "High Fidelity", absolutely hilarious...damn you Jack Black

Many of Wonder's songs were co-wrote and a lot of the cleverness in the finished product is not owed to the songwriting itself but to the production, which also was not done by Stevie.

Prince on the other hand wrote most everything himself and produced it all too...oh, and often played all the instruments. For me, it's a no brainer: Prince is the victor.

It doesn't matter. Stevie Wonder still wrote alot of his work and to sit here and say that Prince wrote ALL his work is not accurate. For the most part both artists wrote most of their work but both at some point or another has had a hand in the writing aspect which is nothing wrong with it. There still talented. Stevie Wonder was heavily involved with the production and the creation of the music, literally in almost all his work. He may not have played every single piece of instrument on every song that he has made but for the most part he played a key role in the music BUT the same goes with Prince. Prince doesn't play all the instruments on EVERY song he has written so why hold that against Stevie?

Stevie Wonder and also alot of other artists open doors for prince and made it so he could do alot of the things that he has done AND no I'm not naming him one of prince inspirations but just what he contributed to music in general and especially as a black artist.

The mere fact that Prince plays instruments is nothing "innovative" because their are plenty of musicians and artists who played all instruments who were black BEFORE prince.

Stevie and Prince BOTH are great.
Prince is great but Stevie Wonder surpasses. Just because Prince writes and plays instruments doesn't make him no better, once again Stevie Wonder does the same and was doing it long before Prince came into the music industry.

Hi, came across this site while doing some googling.

You do realize that Stevie Wonder has his own recording studio, and that he actually knows how to operate equipment , right? On many of his albums/songs, you can see that he has written, played instruments and produced the tracks himself. Obviously he's blind, so there are going to be some things out of his hands, but I have no doubt whatsoever that what you hear on the albums is the sound as Stevie himself intended, not someone else. Stevie often plays all the instruments himself as well. He usually does produce his own albums and material as well.

Let's take a look at the Innervisions credits:

Too High - Every instrument was Stevie. Background vocalists were used, that's it.

All In Love Is Fair - Scott Edwards plays bass. Everything else is Stevie.

Living For The City - All Stevie.

Jesus Children Of America - All Stevie.

Higher Ground - All Stevie.

On the other tracks, people are credited for things like shakers, hand claps, bongos, etc... things Stevie likely could have done himself but opted not to for whatever reason (he recieved a Motown contract from Berry Gordy when Gordy saw him do drums, bongos and harmonica).

This is just one album, I'm sure he picked up more skills as the years went by. Prince is damn talented, and I have mad respect for him, but I simply can't put him on Stevie's level. Nothing Prince has done has matched up to Innervisions, Talking Book or Songs In The Key Of Life for me. Contrary to what some say, I think Stevie's 80's work and beyond has been really good, to say the least. I know a lot of people love 70's Stevie and little else, but I guess that's the pitfalls you face when you reach unimaginable heights when you're barely halfway through your twenties. The fact is that if Stevie's only work had been in the 80's, he probably would still be remembered as a very successful solo pop/r&b star. In terms of consistency, quality and overall talent, I would vote very few people over Stevie Wonder, if any.

Nice contribution thanks for adding this.

BOOGIE DOWN REGGAE WOMAN! I love stevie!

The fact that Stevie was around way before Prince, and the fact that Prince was influenced by him surely speak for themselves. I think Stvie's music, both lyrically and musically have a lot more depth to them. Oh, and he sounds better too!

Where's the love for Wevie Stonder?

Steveland Morris
 

Listen carefully...buy "Music of My Mind" and veg out on it and Talking Book together and you'll understand why these two albums are his masterpieces...all this material was recorded at the same time during a period long session in NY where he literally lived in the studio...the material recorded during that time was trickled out as seperate albums...Music and Talking Book!

Another thing...although l love Prince's contribution to music..his pales in comparison to Steveland Morris...All u have to do is look at content...who cares who produced and wrote and played...Stevie is always talking about something...not too many artist can match his level of content...content the world can chew on!!!!

ive gotta go for superstition but only cause i can play it on guitar

Written by Stevie, and almost as good..



But You Can't Substitute The Real Thing -

Definitely like his older stuff. I can't speak much for the overall body of his recent work (last ten, fifteen years) because I've never cared for that bits of stuff I've heard from that time period.

key of life better than innervisions???? 2 words... higher and ground....

secret life of plants is ****.... sos "jungle fever" which he did late 80s early 90s

the woman in red soundtrack is half and half....

conversation peace is a brilliant album though....

where im comming from is a great record by stevie also

SONGS IN THE KEY OF MOTHER****ING LIFE!!!!!a

Fantastic album and my favorite Wonder record.

But I feel the second half isn't quite as strong as the first. Hell that first disc is a perfect 10 on it's own.

too be honest i loved every minute of it, gave every song on there 5 stars.

I dont think Stevie has ever had a bad record....Songs in the Key of Life is one of my all time favourites.

Talking Book

had to vote Songs in the Key of Life.

but meh. It's all good. Living for the City :love: