Stevie Wonder - Christmas Collection: 20th Century Masters - [CD]

Formerly available as SOMEDAY AT CHRISTMAS. This assortment of seasonal cheer features Stevie Wonder applying his inimitable vocal technique to familiar and unusual Yuletide songs, with predictably successful results. In "Someday at Christmas" he yearns for a Christmas when "Men won't be boys/playing with bombs like kids play with toys"--this album was recorded during the Vietnam War--striking a plaintive tone not often found on Christmas albums. Other high points include his joyous reading of "Little Drummer Boy," with its steadily building martial beat, and chestnuts like "Silver Bells" and "The Christmas Song," which Wonder delivers with total assurance, as well as a palpable sense of fun. He even brings a measure of soul to more sentimental numbers like "One Little Christmas Tree" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me," while "What Christmas Means to Me" invokes the bubbling bass line of the Capitols' "Cool Jerk," and features a blissful harp solo.