Signed, Sealed, and Delivered
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''Signed, Sealed & Delivered'' is the 12th
studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by American recording artist
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
, released on August 7, 1970, by Tamla Records. The album featured four hits that hit the Billboard Hot 100: " Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" (#3), "
Heaven Help Us All "Heaven Help Us All" is a 1970 soul single composed by Ron Miller and first performed by Motown singer Stevie Wonder. The song, which showcased a departure from Wonder's earlier works by displaying an earthier, gospel-infused sound, continued Wond ...
" (#9), " Never Had a Dream Come True" (#26) and Wonder's cover of The Beatles' " We Can Work It Out" (#13). The album hit #25 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Albums chart as well as #7 on the R&B Albums chart. This was Wonder's first album on which he was given producer credit, though he actually produced only two of the tracks and co-produced three more. He wrote or co-wrote seven of the tracks.


Critical reception

Reviewing for '' The Village Voice'' in 1970,
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
said ''Signed, Sealed & Delivered'' has flawed moments, but Motown albums are rarely consistent. He concluded the album is "still the most exciting LP by a male soul singer in a very long time, and it slips into no mold, Motown's included." '' Rolling Stone'' magazine's Vince Aletti said that the album "holds more creative singing than you're likely to find in another performer's entire body of work." Aletti felt that, although not all of the songs match the energy of the title track, the album does not have a bad song and includes an "extraordinary" cover of "We Can Work It Out" that shares the other songs' "tasteful, unencumbered" arrangements. In his list for ''The Village Voice'', Christgau named ''Signed, Sealed and Delivered'' the eleventh best album of 1970, and later called it the best soul album of the year. In a retrospective review, Allmusic's Ron Wynn gave the album three out of five stars, noting that Wonder's focus seemed to be more on social issues than commercial concerns, and found songs such as "I Can't Let My Heaven Walk Away" and "Never Had a Dream Come True" as intriguing as the hit title track and "We Can Work It Out".


Track listing

;Side one #" Never Had a Dream Come True" (
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
, Henry Cosby,
Sylvia Moy Sylvia Rose Moy (September 15, 1938 – April 15, 2017) was an American songwriter and record producer, formerly associated with the Motown Records group. The first woman at the Detroit-based music label to write and produce for Motown acts, she ...
)
– 3:13 #" We Can Work It Out" ( John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:19 #" Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" (
Lee Garrett Lee Garrett (born June 30, 1943, in Mississippi) is an American rhythm and blues singer-songwriter, most famous for co-writing the classic song "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours". He recorded a handful of solo singles during the 1960s, one of ...
, Lula Mae Hardaway, Wonder, Syreeta Wright)
– 2:41 #"
Heaven Help Us All "Heaven Help Us All" is a 1970 soul single composed by Ron Miller and first performed by Motown singer Stevie Wonder. The song, which showcased a departure from Wonder's earlier works by displaying an earthier, gospel-infused sound, continued Wond ...
" ( Ron Miller) – 3:13 #"You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover" (Cosby, Pam Sawyer, Wonder) – 2:32 #"Sugar" (Don Hunter, Wonder) – 2:52 ;Side two #"Don't Wonder Why" (
Leonard Caston Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston (June 2, 1917 – August 22, 1987) was an American blues pianist and guitarist. He is best noted for the tracks "Blues at Midnight" and "I'm Gonna Walk Your Log". Life and career Leonard Caston Sr. was born in S ...
)
– 4:54 #"Anything You Want Me To Do" (Hunter, Hardaway, Paul Riser, Wonder) – 2:19 #"I Can't Let My Heaven Walk Away" (Joe Hinton, Sawyer) – 2:53 #"Joy (Takes Over Me)" (Duke Browner) – 2:12 #"I Gotta Have a Song" (Hunter, Hardaway, Riser, Wonder) – 2:32 #"Something to Say" (Hunter, Wonder) – 3:26


Personnel

*
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
– lead vocals, backing vocals (side 1, tracks 1, 2, and 6; side 2, tracks 2–5), harmonica, drums, percussion, piano, organ,
clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...
* The Andantes – backing vocals (side 2, tracks 1, 3, and 4) * Wonderlove ( Lynda Laurence, Venetta Fields, and Syreeta Wright) – backing vocals (side 1, tracks 3 and 5) * The Originals – backing vocals (side 2, track 1) * James Jamerson – bass *
Bob Babbitt __NOTOC__ Robert Andrew Kreinar (November 26, 1937 – July 16, 2012), known as Bob Babbitt, was a Hungarian-American bassist, most famous for his work as a member of Motown Records' studio band, the Funk Brothers, from 1966 to 1972, as well a ...
– bass (side 1, tracks 2 and 3) *
Dennis Coffey Dennis James Coffey (born November 11, 1940) is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings, and is well known for his 1971 Top 10 hit single " Scorpio". Biography Coffey learned to play guitar at the ag ...
– guitar * Eddie Willis – electric sitar, sitar (side 1, track 3) * Richard "Pistol" Allen – drums * The Funk Brothers – all other instrumentsThe Complete Motown Singles Vol. 10 1970 [liner notes]. New York: Hip-O/Motown/Universal Records * Track 1 produced by Henry Cosby * Tracks 2, 3 produced by Stevie Wonder * Track 4 produced by Ron Miller and Tom Baird * Track 11 produced by Don Hunter and Stevie Wonder


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Signed, Sealed and Delivered Stevie Wonder albums 1970 albums Tamla Records albums Albums produced by Henry Cosby Albums produced by Stevie Wonder Albums recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. Albums arranged by Paul Riser