Love 'Do I Do' and the single which preceded it 'That girl'. Don't agree however that it Stevie's last great single. There were at least 2 belters from his outstanding 'In square circles' LP : namely 'Overjoyed' and 'Stranger on the shore of love'.

Even on his last album there was a wonderful single called 'Positivity' which deserved to be a hit. Worth checking out.

And just to stick up for 'I just called to say I love you'. Six weeks at number one would suggest it had some appeal to the record buying public, myself included. Not his best single but it is infinitely superior to Lionel Rich Tea's vile but equally popular 'Hello'. Each to their own.

Must do a personal Stevie Wonder top 10 singles one day.

I would say 'younger' rather than 'young'. In 1982 our Debs was no spring chicken.

Anyone spot my own Bates blunder in The Countdown Capers?

Maybe so - But with talk of people living well into their 90s/100s I would say she was still in the first third of her life - just!

How ironic the LP from which Part time lover was culled happened to be called 'In square circle'. The latter is easily my favourite Stevie Wonder LP. You may detect a decline in quality post 1982 but I certainly do not. Some of Stevie's best LP recordings came post Musiquarium : ISC, Characters, Conversation Peace and A Time 2 Love in particular are all superb albums. It's all down to personal taste : you prefer earlier Stevie, I like Stevie from all eras. I do however agree with you on 'Part Time Lover'. I never understood why that single performed so well in the UK.

No?

If we're talking Stevie Wonder singles, here's what surely must be his worst.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0IhxqRzJgQ

I remember years ago Stevie being asked if he thought it was a disadvantage being born blind. He laughed and said "It could have been worse, I could have been born black!"

I already PM'd Andy a desperate plea with 7 minutes left to quickly edit Countdown Capers before 4 minutes past 3.

He answered me two minutes too late.

So yes, I noticed, but not soon enough.

Like Ursula, I'm not going to quote Andy's Magnum Opus. Just to add my appreciation of a brilliantly constructed critique. Loved every syllable of it , except for the play out condemnation of Stars on Stevie.

You should have a job which involves creative writing Andy. (Maybe you do, of course! ).

I suffer from both extremes - sometimes I can't get to sleep at all and other times I can sleep for Britain. Both are extremely frustrating as when I have the former I have to get up and out of bed for an hour or two and when I have the latter I feel exhausted all day despite sleeping for 8 or more hours.

Have you always been like this, where you've had insomnia?

Don't mind 'Don't drive drunk' to be honest. My bete noir of Stevie's has to be a track which he did not release as a single but gift wrapped it for David Parton 'Isn't she lovely'. Loathe it with a passion. Worst track on SITKOL.

Yes on & off! I guess we all have a cross to bear & that one is mine!

Wish I could sleep for Britain!

Possibly as a solo artist, but he still had the great My Love with Julio to come (which has been mentioned here recently) and the also great The Crown with Gary Byrd.

And are we going to be told what it is?!

Okay then AndrewMCCCII, I have consumed a great big oversized American plateful of your Countdown Capers and then came back (Please Sir can I have some more?) again for a second helping. Excuse my indigestion as I now need my prescribed Omeprazole and off the shelf Rennie's to let it all go down nice and comfortably..."burp".

A ****. (Not an expletive describing my thoughts but an quadruple A star grade)

Well done Andy, that was another fabulous effort and enter-attainment. Top Popster of the month for sure.

Excellent work once again Andy

I'm in no hurry to. You don't need my help.

It's ok - I've ''clocked" it now - if you excuse the slight pun there!

[quote=Jedikiah;83425151]"Jackie Wilson Said" was actually a Van Morrison track originally, which dated from the early seventies. I have to say i prefer Van's version, although the Dexys version isn't bad, and it isn't so irritating as "Come On Eileen" over repeated listens, either. I have a preference also for early Dexys, to the 1982 version. "Too-Rye-Aye" isn't a bad album, though.

Lionel Richie's "Hello" is infinitely superior to Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say I Love You", i would say, although i am actually a fan of neither. At least Lionel's song possess a heartfelt quality to it, even if for me, its sentiments seem a little sickly. It is hardly a cabinet cruiseliner singalong track which i have a tendancy to associate with "I Just Called To Say......". When you think back to all the great tracks Stevie has released as a single, which haven't proved half as successful. Still, there is no accounting for taste. At least the Stevie track had a coherent quality to it, in that it was a conventional song, i suppose.[/

I didn't know the Van Morrison version at the time. I do now, but Dexy's version will always be the one for me.

It is such a shame that that Stevie Wonder's only no. 1 in the UK was I Just Called To Say I Love You rather than For Once In My Life or Signed Sealed Delivered. I do love Part Time Lover and Luther's Vandross's input really makes it.

Sounds more like Hall And Oates may have proved the biggest influence for ''Part Time Lover'', than Luther Vandross!

Something tells me Stevie had been listening to ''Maneater''.

Andy certainly knows how to write. Fabulous stuff!

It is great to have some real humour on this thread, alongside the serious stuff!

The BBC are in short supply of great comedy writers!

Off to a gig to see Midge Ure, ABC, Tony Hadley and Bananarama( and it's not the first time I have seen the Rama live!)

Is it to do with the shortage of the letter R at Halfords rather than L ?

Yes, they cancelled that whole 1982 UK tour which included 4 nights at Wembley Arena. I wondered at the time if it was due to poor ticket sales off the back of the relative failure of The Hunter album and its singles. But, then again, they could have just cancelled say 3 of the Wembley shows and only done the one. I've since read that it was possibly due to their now well documented substance abuse around this time and possibly also that this was when Chris Stein first started to become ill.

I had another concert I was looking forward to at Wembley cancelled also about 5 years later. Motley Crue. The lame official explanation given at the time was that there 'was snow on the roof and the weight of both that and their lightning rig would be too heavy for the structure'. Which of course was utter poppycock! They actually cancelled because Nikki Sixx had OD'd on Heroin and almost killed himself.

Thanks for bringing that video to my attention. Really can't ever remember seeing this Lips Like Sigar video but I will be swooning over it for some weeks to come I'm sure! Seriously though, I do like the surreal feel to the video and the bit where they have planets on their heads. What's that all about? Not sure how often they appeared on TOTPs in the 80s but I do remember 'Nothing Lasts Forever' being on in the 90s and it was great.