8 September 1984
Another downside of an ’80s pop childhood: first encountering a ’60s or ’70s icon in their terrible later phase. It took me years to get around to listening to Stevie Wonder’s classic period, almost entirely because of ‘Ebony And Ivory’ and this atrocious single. I seriously thought I’d be laughed out of any record shop just to mention his name.
Now that I know and love ‘Superstition’, ‘He’s Misstra Know-It-All’, ‘Living For The City’ and the rest, it’s even more bewildering that a great artist’s talent can simply turn to mush like this. ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ is infantile—and oh yes, there’s a big corny key change at the end to truly scour away any dignity the man had. Sorry, wrong number.
