Search - Stevie Wonder :: My Cherie Amour

Assembly-Line Perfection

Eric Diggins | South Bend, IN USA | 03/27/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've recently started a mission to collect as much classic albums by the genius Stevie Wonder-childhood & adult albums-as I can possibly obtain. So far, I have gotten most of the albums many have considered Mr. Wonder made at his artistic zenith. Of his childhood albums, so far, I've gotten "For Once In My Life" (1968) and "My Cherie Amour" (1969). Between the two, I anticipated the latter to be my most consistent favorite. I was right. When I first heard samples from "My Cherie Amour" on Amazon.com, I was enthralled by each one, despite the thirty seconds. I became determined to get the album. Now that I have it, I listen to it, enjoying every minute of it. The title track is a phenomenal ballad, "Hello Young Lovers" is a great follow-up, and "At Last" is very nice. It makes me wonder though, is the "At Last" Stevie made the same one that Etta James made? I guess I'll find out eventually. "Light My Fire" is one of the samples which first got me hyped to get the abum. Stevie makes this cover sound so good, and his harmonica playing on it keeps the head rocking. The classic standard "The Shadow Of Your Smile" has those simple lyrics I've always wanted to sing myself. Stevie dosen't sound half bad on that one. The ones that follow are modest, but Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday, Angie Girl, and I've Got You are among my vast favorites on this young Wonder-ful album."

A final album of cover versions and his last of the 1960s

semaj emorej | dallas, texas United States | 12/14/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"stevie wonder's last and final album for the decade of the 1960s 1969's"my cherie amour"would also be officially his last studio album that contains cover versions of other artist's songs and a mixture of his own originals. and 2 my amazement, mr. wonder pulls at all stops 2 give his unique versions of these songs the "wonder way"...and in his classic vocal stylings and musicianship.the album opens with a beautiful wonder original,the classic 'my cherie amour'which was co-written with the beautiful sylvia moy and henry cosby.the song has one of the most beautiful lines and melody in the history of music:'my cherie amour,lovely as a summer day-my cherie amour,distant as the milky way'...this song is without question an unforgetable classic.side one of the original vinyl album opens with that wonder classic and from there wonder brings his musical harmonica uniqueness and vocals 2 the cover versions updated with the upbeat late 1960s style such as 'hello young lovers'/'at last'/and a splendid cover version of the doors 1967 classic 'light my fire'...



wonder's version of 'the shadow of your smile'is without a doubt a very relaxing calm groove that has similar shadings to 'my cherie amour'not by way of the lyrics but by it's musical presentation.(also around this period,wonder recorded a remake of leslie bricusse and syral ornadel's if i ruled the world'which was not included in this album but was included in wonder's three record anthology "looking back" which was originally released in 1977)'you and me'is sung with joyous sunshine from the heart and the musicbeat is moderately warm.side two of the original vinyl album opens with two funky jams:'pearl'as wonder sings with excitement in that he declares her as the sweetest girl in the world.'somebody knows,somebody cares'is another wonder original co-written with his mother lula hardaway,henry cosby,and sylvia moy.the song is about a person who is missing home and wants to comeback,of which wonder and his love who dreams of rocky hills and little cornfields and talking to friendly folks-the hometown folks who knows and cares that their native son is coming home.this track is funky and harmonica funkafied with wonder's high energy vocals and some powerful background vocalists.



'yester-me,yester you,yesterday'which was written by ron miller and b.wells was another hit single release.a classic song about young love and regret between a boy and girl that speaks about a simpler time in life with happy dreams:'where did it go?-that yesterglow?'i had a dream so did you...life was warm and love was true'/the beautiful 'angie girl'(which was co-written with sylvia moy and henry cosby) was wonder's true real life lovesong to his love at that time a girl by the name of angela satterwhite whom wonder had met in los angeles,california in the late sixties.'give your love'another wonder original (co-written with d.hunter and henry cosby) is a dark haunting slow lovesong that has a masterful complex piano piece composed by wonder with beautiful backing strings.this track soars with incredible moods-it has incredible highs and incredible lows and a nice solo part with just wonder's voice and piano which starts the song off.wonder delivers this incredible line to his woman in the song to set off this beautiful love affair:'when i look at love,i look at you.look at me and you'll see the love is burning inside me,but the flame needs you to make it brighter,give to me what you see,make the moment a lifetime'...now i ask you aren't these incredible lines for a woman to hear or what?the opening piano chords of this haunting song are a precursor to a wonder song that he would do many years later on a track entitled 'make sure you're sure'(from the jungle fever soundtrack,1991).



'give your love'with it's effective dark shadings, is an overlooked classic wonder lovesong.(also during this period,wonder also wrote a similar song related to 'give your love',a track entitled 'this town'(a more darker twin to 'give your love')which has a more lusher sound was written for the soul/rock band(the)rotary connection,and is available on the album-"songs"/rotary connection.) the final track,'i've got you'of which stevie had co-written with the beautiful sylvia moy is a very nice concluding song about someone in town seeing his woman running around-only that the person had her mixed up with another girl in town.and there is no doubt in his heart that he knows that his woman loves him:...in a thousand little words he can tell that she really loves him...this song has a nice moderate beat including wonder's classic harmonica solo near the conclusion of the song as the background vocalists backing wonder add a nice cushion to the song complementing wonder's vocals nicely.stevie wonder's "my cherie amour"(1969)was an end of an era for him during this period of which motown albums had no concept and were recorded for the enhancement of singles only mixed in with cover versions.the new decade of the seventies were on the horizon where he would attain creative freedom and would later be a legendary musical force to be reckoned with..."

Follow Up To 'Life'

Andre' S Grindle | Bangor,ME. | 07/23/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The title track not withstanding this album seems thrown

together in comparasin to what came before.Once again Stevie

reinvents "Hello Young Lovers","At Last" and even "Light My

Fire" in his own charming way but the arrangements are downright

bizzare and make little sence even by Motown standards.They

even tacked on "Yester Me,Yester You",a fairly old single on

whitch Stevie's voice is still cracking a bit on the high notes.

An okay album with great songs like "You And Me" but there is

definately some filler here."