Stevie Wonder - Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection [2CD Set] (1996)

Thirty or so of Stevie Wonder's biggest hits--many of them enduring classics--make up this double disc. That's the good news. The bad news is that they're sequenced here about as well (or maybe not) as your CD player's "random" function might do it. Leading off with "Part-Time Lover"--a major chart record, no doubt, but hardly the rouser you'd expect for an opener--is puzzling enough. It's when the programming starts veering from highlights of his self-produced period ("Sir Duke") to Motown assembly-line pieces ("My Cherie Amour") that the head-scratching really begins. And don't try to count the great moments that are missing. This will do in a pinch, but if you own no Stevie, be advised that better overviews of Wonder's career (the finest by far being the four-CD box At the Close of a Century) are available. --Rickey Wright