to show off his prowess on keyboards, harmonica and percussion: moreover, he co-wrote one of its best tracks, Wondering. On another, it is not hugely characterful: the opener Fingertips is better heard in the unbound and extended hit live version recorded a year later.

18. In Square Circle (1985)

I Just Called to Say I Love You’s success seemed to turn Wonder’s head, which explains how an artist who spent the 70s at the cutting edge settled comfortably into the middle of the road. Flashes of the old greatness can be heard on Spiritual Walkers and Overjoyed, but In Square Circle offered pretty slim pickings, and the antiseptic mid-80s production does it no favours at all.

17. The Woman in Red (1984)

The point at which things get tricky. The corny, jingle-likealbum at the time: joyous pop alongside dense, paranoid synthy funk, and in I Never Thought You’d Leave in Summer and the seven-minute Sunshine in Their Eyes, an emotional sucker-punch climax.

6. Hotter Than July (1980)

It says a great deal about Wonder’s 70s work that an album as good as Hotter Than July was greeted as a mild disappointment. Happy Birthday saw him indulging in tinny, rounded-edged synthpop, but its heights – I Ain’t Gonna Stand For It, All I Do, Lately – are still pretty skyscraping.

5. Music of My Mind (1972)

Aged 21, relocated to New York and with a renegotiated Motown contract in hand, on Music of My Mind, Wonder was off the leash. He wrote every song, played virtually every instrument, experimented wildly – not least with