CoronaVinyl Day 434 (W): Talking Book by Stevie Wonder

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "W," and I have a few more Stevie Wonder albums to go through, but haven't featured one since Innervisions back in July 2020, so why the fuck not listen to another of the greatest albums ever made instead of, say Grover Washington, Jr.?  So today, I aurally pleasured myself with Wonder's 15th studio album, 1972's Talking Book.

As I expounded upon back in that July 2020 post, there aren't many five-album runs better than Wonder's five albums released between 1972 and 1976 -- all released before he turned 27.  Four of the five albums made it on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time list:  1972's Music of My Mind (#350) and Talking Book (#59), 1973's Innervisions (#34), 1974's Fulfillingness' First Finale (not ranked), and 1976's Songs in the Key of Life (#4).  The latter three won the Grammy for Album of the Year, making Wonder the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases.

Talking Book was released about six months after Wonder turned 22.  It's a combination of Wonder's burgeoning foray into funk with his soulful, slower pop ballads and love songs.  Like with most of the albums from this period, Wonder played nearly all of the instruments on the album.  He had a little bit more help on Talking Book than on Music of My Mind, and the help was pretty damn accomplished.  Jeff Beck and Ray Parker, Jr. each played guitar on a song.  David Sanborn played the alto sax on "Tuesday Heartbreak."  Backing vocals -- in addition to Wonder himself -- were provided by the likes of accomplished backing vocalist Jim Gilstrap (who sang the first two lines of "You Are The Sunshine of My Life" and later sang co-lead on the theme song to Good Times) and Deniece Williams (who would later have a successful solo career, including the 1984 #1 song "Let's Hear It For The Boy"), among others.

Six of the ten songs on the album were written solely by Wonder, while two songs were co-written by Wonder and his then-wife Syreeta Wright, and the other two songs were co-written by Wonder and his songwriting collaborator for much of the '70s, Yvonne Wright (no relation).

The album reached #3 on the Billboard album chart and topped the Billboard R&B album chart, both his highest-charting positions on those respective charts at that time.  Both singles from the album were not only #1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, but are also all-time classics and signature Wonder songs, despite being very different:  the funky and horn-friendly "Superstition" and R&B ballad love song "You Are The Sunshine of My Life."  The former won two Grammys, one for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and one for Best R&B Song for "Superstition," and the latter won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "Maybe Your Baby"
This plodding funk song, with some sneaky good guitars from Ray Parker, Jr.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)"
The album ends with an epic love song on which Wonder plays all the instruments, sings lead (often double-tracked with himself), and sings backing vocals.  Knowing a little more about what was going on in Wonder's personal life at the time gives the song a deeper meaning.  Wonder and Syreeta Wright had gotten divorced earlier in the summer of 1972, a couple months before Talking Book was released.  Though their relationship was apparently copasetic enough that they continued to work together, this song is basically a "goodbye Syreeta, hello new love, whoever you may be" song.  The verses talk about loss in love, but the choruses offer a ray of hope for the future, but also a slight dig at Wright:  "I believe with you it will be forever / I believe when I fall in love this time it will be forever."  And musically, my favorite parts of the song are Wonder's increasingly delicious drum fills.