Stevie Wonder - Just My Speed (1968)

When I posted my first Stevie Wonder album back in July last year, I mentioned that in my online searches I'd found that there was very little unreleased Stevie Wonder out there, and so as if just to prove me wrong, I've just discovered that Motown have filled that gap by issuing a number of albums in a series called 'Motown Unreleased'. These include rare unheard songs from a multitude of their artists, starting from 1962 and covering the following six years, arranged into years such as '1964' or '1967', and also into genres, like girl singers, jazz or gospel. Scattered throughout the series, though, were a large number of unreleased Stevie Wonder songs, starting from 1963, when he was still the 12 year old child prodigy, and progressing through to 1968, where he'd matured into a thoughtful 18 year old singer/songwriter. This collection is split pretty much 50/50 between those two years, with a couple of 1965 tracks slotted in the middle, and so the contrast in the styles is quite noticeable, but it's great to hear these previously unreleased new songs alongside alternate takes of a few that did make it out, like the fast version of Dylan's 'Blowing In The Wind', or the studio version of 'Fingertips', which unlike the take on his 'Jazz Soul' album features lashings of harmonica, just like the live version that was his first hit. He laid down a fine rendition of 'Moon River' in 1968, and also recorded a big band version of 'I Left My Heart In San Francisco', but to my ears it didn't work anywhere near as well, so I've omitted it from this album, although you can probably find it on Youtube if you do want to hear it. There are a number of energetic instrumentals in here, alongside some of his own compositions from the 1968 period, and although this is an album of two halves - the youngster versus the teenager - it's interesting to hear the move towards a more assured sound as the album progresses.  

Track listing

01 Take This Hammer
02 Don't Hesitate To Cry  
03 Stevie's Tune  
04 Blowin' In The Wind (Version 1)  
05 I'm Checking Out   
06 Forever 
07 Fingertips (Version 3)  
08 Just My Speed 
09 I Ain't Got Nobody  
10 Dance Yeah Dance 
11 Til 12 O'Clock 
12 Moon River  
13 All I Want Is A Little Bit Of Love
14 I'll Wait For You To Come Home 
15 Little Ol' Boy
16 I'll See You Around 
17 Give Me All Of Your Loving  

Tracks 1 - 9  1963
Tracks 10 & 11  1965
Tracks 12 - 17  1968