| Fulfillingness' First Finale | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Stevie Wonder | ||||
| Released | July 22, 1974 | |||
| Recorded | Record Plant Studios, L.A., Media Sound, N.Y., Westalke Audio, L.A., Electric Lady, N.Y. | |||
| Genre | Soul, Funk | |||
| Length | 42:33 | |||
| Label | Tamla | |||
| Producer | Stevie Wonder, Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil | |||
| Stevie Wonder chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Fulfillingness' First Finale | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Billboard | (favorable)[2] |
| Robert Christgau | (A-)[3] |
| The Daily Vault | (A)[4] |
| Q | [5] |
| Rhapsody | (favorable)[6] |
| Rolling Stone | (favorable)[7] |
| Rolling Stone | [8] |
| Yahoo! Music | (favorable)[9] |
Fulfillingness' First Finale is a landmark album by Stevie Wonder, released on July 22, 1974; one of the albums from his "classic period".[10] It is his seventeenth studio album overall. According to Billboard magazine, it was Wonder's first album to top the Pop Albums chart where it remained for two weeks, while it was his third album to top the R&B/Black Albums chart where it spent nine nonconsecutive weeks.[11]
Subsequent to the epic sweep and social consciousness of Innervisions, this set projected a reflective, decidedly somber tone. The musical arrangements used in several songs while masterful could be considered sparse in comparison to others among his 70s masterworks, evident especially in the bleak "They Won't Go When I Go" and understated "Creepin'". While largely a stripped down, more personal sounding record, Wonder had not completely foregone commentary on the world around him. The No. 1 hit "You Haven't Done Nothin'" launched a pointed criticism of the Nixon administration bolstered by funky Clavinet, drum machine, and a Jackson 5 cameo.
Fulfillingness' First Finale won Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal, Best Male Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance (for "Boogie On Reggae Woman"), and Album of the Year in 1975. When Wonder took two years to record his follow-up album (Songs), this broke his consecutive Grammy streak and led to Paul Simon's famous quote thanking him for not releasing an album in 1975 (when Simon won the Album of the Year award for Still Crazy After All These Years).
Contents |
All songs written by Stevie Wonder except where noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Smile Please" | Stevie Wonder | 3:28 |
| 2. | "Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away" | Wonder | 5:02 |
| 3. | "Too Shy to Say" | Wonder | 3:29 |
| 4. | "Boogie On Reggae Woman" | Wonder | 4:56 |
| 5. | "Creepin'" | Wonder | 4:23 |
| 6. | "You Haven't Done Nothin'" | Wonder | 3:23 |
| 7. | "It Ain't No Use" | Wonder | 4:01 |
| 8. | "They Won't Go When I Go" | Wonder, Yvonne Wright | 5:59 |
| 9. | "Bird of Beauty" | Wonder | 3:48 |
| 10. | "Please Don't Go" | Wonder | 4:07 |
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Total length:
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42:33 | ||
2007.
Billboard Chart information by Billboard VNU eMedia
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, (formerly listed as Black Albums) by Billboard magazine charts | 1 |
| Pop Albums | 1 |
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | "You Haven't Done Nothin'" | Pop Singles | 1 |
| "Boogie on Reggae Woman" | 3 | ||
| "You Haven't Done Nothin'" | Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs + | 1 | |
| "Boogie on Reggae Woman" | 1 |
| Preceded by 461 Ocean Boulevard by Eric Clapton |
Billboard 200 number-one album September 14–27, 1974 |
Succeeded by Bad Company by Bad Company |
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