Although it sounds a bit rusty compared to the older and wiser ’65-model Stevie we’ve started to get used to, this turns out to be a more mature and considered piece than Wonder’s actual new records have been of late. (4)
This is a messy, dirty kind of a record, little-loved and completely at odds with everything else Motown was aiming for in the spring of 1965. It’s also brilliant. Go figure. (9)
It’s alright, but the organ is annoying, and it mainly serves as a reminder of Motown’s foolishness in not issuing one of the vocal versions instead. (5)
Simultaneously great fun and greatly annoying, it’s difficult to know what to think about this one; it moves the story of Stevie Wonder forward not one jot, and it’s at least six months past its sell-by date, but you can definitely dance to it and it’ll get stuck in your head given half a chance. (6)
A strange miscalculation – the first of a great many such miscalculations for Little Stevie over the next two years – it’s difficult to know who would be satisfied by this. (4)
It really is remarkable, just a huge amount of fun. Simple and straightforward, sure, but sometimes that’s the best approach, especially if you’ve got Stevie Wonder in your corner; wind him up and watch him go. You might conceivably get tired of listening to Part 1; you’ll never get tired of listening to this. (9)
This is the weaker of the two sides, and when the single was reissued it found itself relegated to the B-side, but it’s unfair to judge it too harshly when it’s really just being taken out of context. The real fun, though, is to be had on Part 2. (7)
