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Certain Songs #2498: Stevie Wonder – “If You Really Love Me”

December 1, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Where I’m Coming From
Year: 1971

. . .

As he approached his 21st birthday, Stevie Wonder played a game of chicken with Motown. You see, his original contract had a clause in it that allowed him to void it when he turned 21, and Stevie took that option, which gave him even more control over his music than he’d previously enjoyed.

And so he came up with Where I’m Coming From, an awkwardly-titled transitional album that was the first time Stevie did a full album of all original-songs, in this case all co-writes with Syreeta Wright, and some reaching upwards of six minutes in length, a first for his studio albums.

Wright was also at the center of the album’s one big hit single, the piano and horn-driven “If You Really Love Me,” which alternated a sophisticated vocal arrangement on the choruses with Stevie singing solo on the jazzy last-call verses. It’s a contrast that probably shouldn’t have worked as well as it did, but the way it jumped out with chorus was hard to resist.

And if you really love me, won’t you tell me?
And if you really love me, won’t you tell me?
And if you really love me, won’t you tell me?
Then I won’t have to be
Playing around

And so that’s Wonder by himself on the first line, followed by double-tracked Wonder on the second, followed by Wright on the harmonies on the third one, with both together against a sophisticated slow-down prior to each verses. And while the choruses — especially the later ones with handclaps(!) — are better than the verses, Stevie does sing the fuck out of the verses, and the ease in which multitracked Stevie swings back and forth from choruses to the verses foreshadows some of the tricksier arrangements that were around the corner.

And while “If You Really Love Me” wasn’t quite as big of a hit as some of the songs that preceded it, it still made #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #20 on the U.K. charts, though, interestingly enough, Where I’m Coming From was his worst-charting studio album in five years, stalling out at #65.

“If You Really Love Me”

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Filed Under: Certain Songs Tagged With: If You Really Love Me, Stevie Wonder, Where I'm Coming From

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Previously on Medialoper

  • Certain Songs #2631: Talking Heads – “Road to Nowhere”
  • Certain Songs #2630: Talking Heads – “And She Was”
  • Certain Songs #2629: Talking Heads – “What A Day That Was (Los Angeles 12-1983)”
  • Certain Songs #2628: Talking Heads – “Slippery People (Los Angeles 12-1983)”
  • Certain Songs #2627: Talking Heads – “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”

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