Stevie Wonder: Number 1's [Digipak] (CD - 2007)

Your average Stevie Wonder fanatic is likely to have each of these tracks already, if not on another hits collection, then on the original studio albums, but that doesn't keep NUMBER 1's from being a superb compilation. Well-selected, concise, and career-spanning, NUMBER 1's starts with Little Stevie's 1963 breakthrough smash "Fingertips, Pt. 2," then proceeds to cover the most iconic tunes of the 40-plus year career that followed.

From "Uptight (Everything's All right)" right through to "So What's the Fuss" (from 2005's A TIME 2 LOVE), NUMBER 1's stuns with its string of classics. Pop music has rarely come close to the reflexive, happy bounce of "Superstitious"'s opening clavinet, or the soaring, exuberant glee of "Sir Duke." There's room for quibbling: Wonder aficionados might replace the syrupy romance of "I Just Called to Say I Love You" with one of his missing '70s gems, for example, but overall it's impossible to argue with the overflow of genius represented by these 20 tracks. minimize