Stevie Wonder ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered’

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “We Can Work It Out” by Stevie Wonder

He was no longer little…but he was not yet big either…

By 1970, Stevie Wonder had grown restless with the constraints that Motown Records put upon his creativity. Rather than continue to create commercial fodder that was sure to climb the charts, Wonder wanted to address social concerns with his music, and explore different instrumentation on his records. On his 1970 album Signed, Sealed & Delivered, he began to spread his musical wings and display a newfound maturity in his songwriting and his singing, particularly on songs like “I Can’t Let Heaven Walk Away,” “Something To Say” and “Never Had A Dream Come True.”

Sure, he still had the ability to give Motown what they wanted, but Wonder craved more control over his recordings, and for this album he wrote or co-wrote seven of the tracks and received full production credit for the first time. (In reality, he actually only produced two of the tracks and co-produced three more.)

Along with the hit title track (#1 R&B, #3 Pop), the album also featured the singles “Heaven Help Us All” (#9 Pop), “Never Had a Dream Come True” (#11 R&B) and Wonder’s cover of The Beatles’ “We Can Work It Out” (#13 Pop). Today’s Song Of The Day also earned Wonder his second Grammy Award nomination, for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. The album hit #25 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart and also climbed to the #7 spot on the R&B Albums chart.

The song was credited to Lennon and McCartney; however the lyrics were about McCartney’s relationship with then girlfriend Jane Asher. The Beatles’ recorded it during the sessions for Rubber Soul, and released it as one side of a double A-sided single with “Day Tripper” on the flip.

Wonder’s version was heard playing over the closing credits of the 2005 film Kicking And Screaming. He also performed his version of the song at The White House to honor Paul McCartney in 2010 when McCartney was awarded the Gershwin Prize by the Library of Congress.

–– Eric Berman

 

Track Listing

1. “Never Had a Dream Come True” (Stevie Wonder, Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy) – 3:13
2. “We Can Work It Out” (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:19
3. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” (Lee Garrett, Lula Mae Hardaway, Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright) – 2:39
4. “Heaven Help Us All” (Ron Miller) – 3:13
5. “You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover” (Henry Cosby, Pam Sawyer and Stevie Wonder) – 2:32
6. “Sugar” (Don Hunter and Stevie Wonder) – 2:52
7. “Don’t Wonder Why” (Leonard Caston) – 4:54
8. “Anything You Want Me To Do” (Hunter, Lula Mae Hardaway, Paul Riser and Stevie Wonder) – 2:19
9. “I Can’t Let My Heaven Walk Away” (Joe Hinton and Pam Sawyer) – 2:19
10. “Joy (Takes Over Me)” (Duke Browner) – 2:12
11. “I Gotta Have a Song” (Don Hunter, Hardaway, Paul Riser and Stevie Wonder) – 2:32
12. “Something to Say” (Don Hunter and Stevie Wonder) – 3:26