Stevie Wonder - "Front Line"

 

In 1982, Stevie Wonder released a two-disc album of greatest hits titled Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I. (To date, there hasn't been an Original Musiquarium II, but I digress). On this album, he included four new tracks, all of which were also released as singles and became sizable hits.

I don't know if the four songs were specifically recorded for this compilation, they were leftover tracks from previous albums or if Wonder had originally penned them for a new album. Whatever the case, I wanted to take the four songs and see if I could find other stray tracks from the same period to create what could have been a new studio album for 1982 instead of a greatest hits package.

SIDE A

1. Front Line

2. Ribbon in the Sky

3. Stay Gold

4. What's That You're Doing?

SIDE B

1. That Girl

2. Front Line Revisited (instrumental)

3. Do I Do

Besides the four new tracks -- "Front Line," "Ribbon in the Sky," "That Girl" and "Do I Do," I also included "Stay Gold" from the soundtrack of the film "The Outsiders." Interestingly, when "The Outsiders" was rereleased several years later, director Francis Ford Coppola decided the score by his father Carmine (who co-wrote "Stay Gold") wasn't right for the film, and he changed the music. So moving the song to this album kind of saves it.

In addition, I included Wonder's collaboration with Paul McCartney, "What's That You're Doing?" It's actually not that uncommon for two singers to do a duet and then have the song appear on both of their respective solo albums (see "My Little Town" by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel). Plus, "What's That You're Doing?" always seems out of place on McCartney's Tug of War album, and I think it fits better here.

Finally, to fill out the album, I added the instrumental version of "Front Line" (found on the B-side of the single) to act as a coda before launching into the epic 10 1/2-minute "Do I Do" that concludes the album. Both sides end up clocking in at a little over 21 minutes.

I think overall this is a pretty good album with a nice musical variety and would have fit in well as a followup to Wonder's 1980 album Hotter Than July. Plus, the four tracks from Original Musiquarium I are allowed to better shine here.

I titled the album Front Line since I use two different versions of the song, and I repurposed the single's cover for the album cover after I did a little Photoshopping.

Listen to the YouTube playlist.