Number 1's

iTunes Review

Despite its title, Number 1’s actually excludes a couple of Stevie Wonder’s #1’s from the Sixties ( “Blowin’ In the Wind,” “Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day”) and a few from the Eighties (“Ebony & Ivory,” “Go Home,” “You Will Know”) just to be able to fit in all of the stone-cold classics from Wonder’s Seventies era. The compilation disproportionately favors the Seventies, mistakenly giving the impression that Wonder’s Sixties period was just a prelude to his later triumphs rather than its own distinct body of work, but other than that, collecting his #1’s seems like the most reasonable way to distill Wonder’s remarkably deep and diverse career onto one disc. The crisp remastering job brings out new details in lesser-known Seventies works like “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” and “Boogie On Reggae Woman,” which are just as good as standards like “Superstition” and “I Wish.” Even more surprising is “Skeleton,” an overlooked #1 from 1987 that (along with the 1995 bonus track “So What the Fuss”) proves that Wonder is the rare old-timer willing to engage hip-hop’s musical innovations rather than deride them.