POLLTIME PARADISE: ILM Artist Poll #9 Results -- Stevie Wonder

One more and then I have to grab some lunch.

37. SUMMER SOFT (Songs in the Key of Life, 1976) -- 128 points, 9 votes, 1 #1 vote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDnwWkxEnMY

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BITCHES! MY #1 SONG JUST BARELY MAKES IT!
― michael assbender (Eric H.), Friday, October 7, 2011 12:23 PM (0 seconds ago)

not really feelin that one

Enjoy your SB.

not really feelin that one
Sounds a lot like album filler to me. But I must admit that I haven't paid much attention to side 2 of SitKoL - sides 1 and 4 are far more interesting to me.

Seriously? I can think of no other Stevie Wonder composition (aside from "Golden Lady") that showcases his astonishingly complex changes and knack for embedding key changes into the songwriting in as non-gratuitous a way as imaginable.

yeah summer soft is a bit too twee for me iirc

voted for ordinary pain. could have voted for for once in my life on a diff day. all in love is fair is maybe my least fav song on innervisions and by that i mean it is just an 8/10 jam.

G-D you if I ever start listening to "Summer Soft" in the future and the word "twee" pops into my head.

I will hunt you down.

:)

35. (tie) BLAME IT ON THE SUN (Talking Book,, 1972) -- 131 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqr6XydnT0M

TS: Stevie Wonder's "Blame It On The Sun" vs Milli Vanilli's "Blame It On The Rain"

The winner is "Blame It On The Weatherman" by B*Witched.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, August 16, 2006 8:55 AM (5 years ago)

35. (tie) UNTIL YOU COME BACK TO ME (Aretha Franklin, Let Me in Your Life, 1973) -- 131 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl7o7eZjLC4

this record has a real nice intro
― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, May 29, 2005 11:41 PM (6 years ago)

one of the best stevie wonder songs made by another artist, evah.
― blahbariantheoriginal, Monday, May 30, 2005 3:29 AM (6 years ago)

xxp - I'm afraid key changes don't excite me very much, but a good hook does. And I don't hear one in 'Summer Soft'. Yet.

two of mine back to back

i never knew he wrote that aretha song. but then i am a numpty. would have voted for it if id known.

Guess "Summer Soft" was one of those songs that got me to get beyond pop music just being "good hooks," but I hear tons of them in that song anyway so shut up.

Yes master.

34. PASTTIME PARADISE (Songs in the Key of Life, 1976) -- 135 points, 9 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DumOCxDxov4

Vergeet ook Ray's acht-en-een-halve-minuut durende wervelwind door Stevie Wonder's Pasttime Paradise niet. Que rico.
― GzZz (Gzz), Sunday, February 19, 2006 7:20 PM (5 years ago)

hmm never heard that Aretha before this poll (that "that's what I'm gonna do" refrain sounds familiar tho... hmm). not really into either too much, def prefer Stevie's version of Blame It on the Sun.

xp

I did vote for Pastime Paradise, but on reflection I don't find it a very pleasant listen.

Pasttime Paradise is such a weird song - def something groundbreaking going on there with that odd synth-gospel-lurch feel

i feel like there was a great cover of UYCBTM in the late nineties/early 00s but I can't for the life of me remember who did it

oh wait i know it from this mazing version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MArfC8z3mM

I like 'Blame It on the Sun', but I wish the chorus was a little bit stronger; the verses are so lovely.

I hadn't heard that Aretha song, and I'm afraid Coolio ruined 'Pastime Paradise' for me.

33. IT'S A SHAME (The Spinners, 2nd Time Around, 1970) -- 137 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0B1KgPZn0A

"Doh!" Best songs given away by the writer to another band?

Oh! Stevie Wonder gave "It's a Shame" to the Spinners and "Tell Me Something Good" to Rufus & Chaka. Those two have to be near the top.
― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Sunday, March 26, 2006 10:24 AM (5 years ago)

amazing tune

oh shiiii another song i love and didn't know to vote for

OK, question time. When other polls want to split up ties, do they usually put the song with less votes/more passion higher up or the one with more votes/less passion?

My hunch is that more votes = higher position.

That's usual, yeah, but go with your gut.

Yeah, my first tiebreaker was # of votes.

oh shiiii another song i love and didn't know to vote for

― Ravaging Rick Rude (a hoy hoy), Friday, October 7, 2011 1:05 PM (2 minutes ago)

My first tiebreaker would've been if there were any #1 votes attached, but as it shook out, none of the ties involved #1's.

So, yeah, I'm gonna let more votes = higher position.

I just kept mine as ties fwiw.

In the last one, I really had no choice.

32. BIG BROTHER (Talking Book, 1972) -- 140 points, 6 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqGvwGz7B6g

OK, I promise to stop posting weird videos of cute/awkward boys dancing to Stevie Wonder. Maybe.

31. LOVE HAVING YOU AROUND (Music of My Mind, 1972) -- 140 points, 7 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=so9_Vb5yY4k

I could have chosen any of the first four songs, but opted for Love Having You Around on the strength of Stevie's growly "baby, baby, bayby", followed by him doing the same thing through a vocoder. I LOVE that bit.
― Stew, Tuesday, August 19, 2008 8:02 AM (3 years ago)

Last five will have to wait for about an hour now. Work beckons.

I discovered 'Big Brother' just after I sent in my ballot - it would have been top 10 for me if the deadline had been extended just two more days...

hmmm dont rly care for big brother. love lhya though and voted for it p high iirc

damn. BIOTS, UYCBTM and It's A Shame are all too low. all three are on a short list of his greatest contributions to mankind

The most annoying thing about this poll has been the recognition of so many songs by their samples, instead of the original tunes. This one for example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSU73awbZUw

can't think of too many Stevie samples tbh, besides the two already mentioned (and the brief vocal snippet in Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos). Kinda assumed Stevie was largely anti-sampling

Shakey, surely you've heard the "I Can't Help It" sample in De La's "Breakadawn."

actually, Stevie has supported hip-hop from the beginning.

Wild Wild West?

Shakey, surely you've heard the "I Can't Help It" sample in De La's "Breakadawn."

thought this was a Michael Jackson song - is Stevie on it?

he wrote it, right?

apparently - this is news to me. altho I guess I really shouldn't be surprised whenever an MJ song turns out to not be written by MJ lol

but let's not derail this thread with that discussion...

He cowrote it.

he = Stevie

Here are some more (ex)samples.

Rocket Love seems a p big one imo.

So..."If It's Magic" didn't even place.

I'm SO going to the Chicago show.

only if he does Hotter Than July in its entirety.

Maybe for an encore.

I'd vote "Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away" #1 if we redid this. really I'd vote Stevie's drum playing #1, so into that today. do we have a thread just for Wonder as a drummer?

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/wonder_week.html

Slate's Wonder Week, "telling our greatest living musician how much we care."

No arguments here.

that piece on his drumming is o_O

fabulous article

Happy birthday, Stevie!

man, I BELIEVE (WHEN I FALL IN LOVE IT WILL BE FOREVER), you just knock me out

good #1, alfred--one of my fav songs to play on the piano

Happy birthday again!

Ranking those albums.

Talking Book is the one album in the whole classic run that just doesn't connect with me on the same level as the rest.

(Musiquarium has four new songs too.)

That's me and Songs xpost

I garbled that sentence. I was trying to say that two of the new songs were best-ever cuts.

Ah, got it. Yes, "Front Line" is neither fantastic nor a classic.

Inspired by Chris's Hit Parade podcast, and upon realization this hadn't been turned into a Spotify playlist ...

https://open.spotify.com/user/ephender/playlist/5hayJcMGy0BoMFQ517MNen?si=f4THhSknQaO8m93KXiByiA

I rank his pop top tens.

I'm surprised that he had so few of them tbh.