Original Musiquarium (Remastered) Stevie Wonder

• 1 Superstition 04:26
• 2 You Haven't Done Nothin' 03:29
• 3 Living For The City 07:25
• 4 Front Line 05:59
• 5 Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) 07:58
• 6 Send One Your Love 04:01
• 7 You Are The Sunshine Of My Life 02:51
• 8 Ribbon In The Sky 05:39
• 9 Higher Ground 03:47
• 10 Sir Duke 03:54
• 11 Master Blaster (Jammin') 05:06
• 12 Boogie On Reggae Woman 04:56
• 13 That Girl 05:15
• 14 I Wish 04:14
• 15 Isn't She Lovely 06:33
• 16 Do I Do 10:28
• Total Runtime 01:26:01

Info for Original Musiquarium (Remastered)

You can divide Stevie Wonder's career into two basic parts--pre-1971, when he was recording delirious soul singles at Motown's bidding, and post-1971, when he was awarded artistic control and proceeded to make some of the greatest socially-conscious music ever committed to tape, while still keeping up the delirious soul content.

„Original Musiquarium“ covers the cream of part two, and is therefore the cream of Stevie Wonder. It's the rare greatest-hits album that zeroes in on its subject's actual best work with almost surgical focus, and includes new recordings that actually belong there. The new ones include the dance hit 'Do I Do' and the timeless ballad 'Ribbon In The Sky.' The certified classics include 'Living For The City' and 'Superstition' in the heavy-meaning department, 'Sir Duke' and 'Master Blaster' in the pure-joy department and 'You Are The Sunshine Of My Life' in the hello-Mr.-Sinatra-we've-got-a-tune-for-you department. If you don't already own all of them, you might as well stop reading this and pick up this album now. That's an order.

Eleven Top 40 hit singles, and one album track, taken from Wonder's 'classic period' running from 1972 to 1980. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard 200, at #1 on the Top R&B Albums chart in the United States, and went to #8 in the United Kingdom. It has been certified a gold album by the RIAA.

Stevie Wonder, vocals, various instruments, harmonica, piano
Benjamin Bridges, acoustic & electric guitars
Buzzy Feiton, guitar
Rick Zunigar, guitar
Mike Sembello, guitar
Hank Redd, alto saxophone
Trevor Laurence, tenor saxophone
Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet
Steve Madaio, trumpet
Raymond Maldonado, trumpet
Larry Gittens, trumpet
Isaiah Sanders, organ
Gregory Phillinganges, keyboards
Reggie McBride, bass
Nathan LaMar Watts, bass
Scott Edwards, bass
Raymond Pounds, drums
Dennis Davis, drums
Daniel Ben Zebulon, congas
Rocky Dzidzornu, congas
Earl DeRouen, percussion
The Jackson 5, background vocals
Gloria Barley, background vocals
Lani Groves, background vocals
Jim Gilstrap, background vocals
Marva Holcom, background vocals
Angela Winbush, background vocals
Shirley Brewer, background vocals
Alexandra Brown Evans, background vocals
Renee Hardaway, background vocals

Recorded at Wonderland Studios, Los Angeles; Soundworks Digital Audio/Video Studios
Produced by Stevie Wonder

Digitally remastered by Kevin Reeves (Universal Mastering Studios East)

Stevie Wonder
Dubbed “Little Stevie Wonder” by Motown’s Berry Gordy, he was signed to the label when he was only 12 years old and was just 13 when the live recording “Fingertips (Part 2)” hit no. 1 pop and R&B. Playing harmonica, drums and keyboards, as well as singing, the boy who had been blind from infancy proved aptly named. While still a teenager--dropping the “Little” from his stage name--he earned seven top 10 pop singles, including “For Once In My Life,” “My Cherie Amour,” “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday,” “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” and “I Was Made To Love Her.”

By age 20, he was self-sufficient in the studio, writing, playing every instrument and serving as his own producer, including for such hits as “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and “If You Really Love Me.” He broadened his vision from pure pop to the socially conscious. He began exploring exotic musical ideas incorporating gospel, rock, jazz, reggae, and African and Latin American rhythms, and pioneered the use of synthesizers.

Turning 21 in 1971, Stevie holed up in a New York studio and refused to sign with Motown until he was given autonomy to record as he please. Motown agreed and the groundbreaking Music Of My Mind was released followed the next year. Later that year came Talking Book, which boasted the no. 1 pop and R&B hits “Superstition” and “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.” Innervisions, featuring the Top 10 hit “Higher Ground,” “Don’t You Worry ’Bout A Thing” and the epic “Living For The City,” was a landmark LP that became the his first of three consecutive Grammy® Albums of the Year.

While the record was riding high, Wonder was in a near-fatal accident. He recovered to record another deeply felt album, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, in 1974, that featured the no. 1 pop “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” (with the Jackson 5 on background vocals) and no. 1 R&B “Boogie On Reggae Woman.”

Songs In The Key Of Life was an instant no. 1 album, the first by an American artist to debut at the top spot, where it remained for an incredible 14 weeks. It was highlighted by the no. 1 pop and R&B hits “I Wish” and “Sir Duke.” By the late seventies, Wonder was also leading the way in New Age instrumental music with the soundtrack album Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants, which featured the ballad hit “Send One Your Love.” He won 15 Grammys in just four years.

Wonder kicked off the eighties with his funk classic “Master Blaster (Jammin’),” a tribute to Bob Marley, and “Happy Birthday,” the theme song for the successful campaign to establish the birthday of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a national holiday. Both were included on the album Hotter Than July. Balancing public causes and private emotion, he scored with the no. 1 R&B “That Girl” in 1982. A champion of racial harmony, he joined Paul McCartney on the no. 1 pop “Ebony And Ivory” later that year.

Wonder contributed songs to the Gene Wilder film The Woman In Red in 1984, when the theme song, “I Just Called To Say I Love You,” hit no. 1 pop, R&B and adult contemporary. It also became Wonder’s first no. 1 in the U.K. With Elton John and Gladys Knight, he also appeared on Dionne Warwick’s 1985 no. 1 pop “That’s What Friends Are For,” which benefited AIDS research. That same year, he won the Oscar® for Best Song for “I Just Called To Say I Love You”; was spotlighted in “We Are The World,” the landmark charity effort for African famine relief; and “Part-Time Lover,” from the album In Square Circle, became the first single to simultaneously top the pop, R&B, adult contemporary and dance/disco charts.

The nineties and the new millennium were marked by collaborations with artists as diverse as Prince and Sting, Babyface and Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg and Andrea Bocelli, Sting and Tony Bennett, and projects as varied as the Broadway musical Rent and Spike Lee’s film Jungle Fever.

Wonder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. As of mid-2008, Wonder has earned 25 solo Top 10 pop hits, among them seven no. 1’s, and won 22 Grammy Awards--plus a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1996. His 2005 Motown album A Time 2 Love garnered six Grammy nominations and won two, including one for “So Amazing,” Wonder’s duet with Beyonce.

For Rolling Stone magazine’s 2004 article “The Immortals – The Greatest Artists Of All Time,” Elton John wrote about Stevie Wonder: “When he comes into a room, people adore him. And there aren’t many artists like that. People admire you and they like your records, but they don’t want to stand up and hug you. But this man is a good man. He tries to use his music to do good. His message, I think, is about love, and in the world we live in today, that message does shine through.”

This album contains no booklet.