Signed, Sealed & Delivered

Signed, Sealed & Delivered
Studio album by Stevie Wonder
Released August 7, 1970
Genre Soul
Length 35:30
Label Motown
Producer Stevie Wonder, Henry Cosby, Ron Miller, Steve Marcel Bega
Stevie Wonder chronology
Live at the Talk of the Town
(1970)		 Signed, Sealed & Delivered
(1970)		 Where I'm Coming From
(1971)
For other uses, see Signed Sealed Delivered.

Signed, Sealed & Delivered is a studio album by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, released on August 7, 1970, by Tamla Records. Along with the hit title track, the album also featured the hits "Heaven Help Us All", "Never Had a Dream Come True" and Wonder's cover of The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out". 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 only produced two of the tracks and co-produced three more. He wrote or co-wrote seven of the tracks.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review for The Village Voice, music critic Robert Christgau gave Signed, Sealed and Delivered an "A–" and wrote that, although it has flawed moments and that Motown albums are rarely consistent, it 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."[1] 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.[2]

In his list for The Village Voice, Christgau named Signed, Sealed and Delivered the eleventh best album of 1970,[3] and later called it the best soul album of the year.[4] In a less enthusiastic, retrospective review, Allmusic's Ron Wynn gave the album three out of five stars and found songs such as "I Can't Let My Heaven Walk Away" and "Never Had a Dream Come True" more engaging than the hit title track and "We Can Work It Out".[5]

Track listing

Side One

  1. "Never Had a Dream Come True" (Stevie Wonder, Henry Cosby, 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, Wonder, Syreeta Wright) - 2:39
  4. "Heaven Help Us All" (Ron Miller) - 3:13
  5. "You Can't Judge a Book By Its Cover" (Cosby, Pam Sawyer, Wonder) - 2:32
  6. "Sugar" (Don Hunter, Wonder) - 2:52

Side Two

  1. "Don't Wonder Why" (Leonard Caston) - 4:54
  2. "Anything You Want Me To Do" (Hunter, Hardaway, Paul Riser, Wonder) - 2:19
  3. "I Can't Let My Heaven Walk Away" (Joe Hinton, Sawyer) - 2:53
  4. "Joy (Takes Over Me)" (Duke Browner) - 2:12
  5. "I Gotta Have a Song" (Hunter, Hardaway, Riser, Wonder) - 2:32
  6. "Something to Say" (Hunter, Wonder) - 3:26

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1970). "Consumer Guide (16)". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
  2. ↑ Aletti, Vince (January 7, 1971). "Signed, Sealed and Delivered". Rolling Stone. New York. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert (March 11, 1971). "Consumer Guide (16)". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  4. ↑ Christgau, Robert (February 1973). "Little Stevie Grows Older". Newsday. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  5. ↑ Wynn, Ron. "Signed, Sealed and Delivered - Stevie Wonder". Allmusic. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
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