STUCK IN THE VINYL AGAIN - STEVIE WONDER - IN SQUARE CIRCLE

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Good morning Thursday people and welcome back to Stuck In The Vinyl Again. Today we celebrate the 71st Birthday of none other than Michigan born  singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Happy Birthday Stevie ! To get his BIG day started, she shine a light on his 20th studio recording, the 1985 Tamia release, In Square Circle. Stevie produced the 2X Platinum selling record and it reached #5 on the Hot 100 and in the UK, #4 in Switzerland,  #3 in Italy, Japan, and Norway, and #2 in Swede. The LP spawned some memorable singles with  "Part-Time Lover" (#1 Belgium, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and here at home on the Hot 100), "Go Home" (#12 Cash Box, #10 Hot 100, #2 R&B, #1 Adult Contemporary),  "Overjoyed" (#24 Hot 100, #17 UK, #8 R&B, #1 Adult Contemporary), "Land of La La" (#86 Hot 100, #19 R&B), and "Stranger On The Shore Of Love" (#55 UK) . Among the album's musicians are Luthor Vandross, Philip Bailey, Deniece Williams and Earl Klugh.

"Part-Time Lover" – 4:12

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, synthesizers, drums
Luther Vandross – lead vocal, background vocal
Syreeta Wright – background vocal
Philip Bailey – background vocal
Keith John – background vocal
Melody McCully, Billy Durham, Peter Byrne, Renee Hardaway, Darryl Phinnessee – background vocal

"I Love You Too Much" – 5:27

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, synthesizers, drums, percussion
"Whereabouts" – 4:17
Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, synthesizers, drums, percussion
Keith John – background vocal
Darryl Phinnessee – background vocal
Deniece Williams – background vocal
Howard Smith – background vocal

"Stranger on the Shore of Love" – 5:00

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, synthesizers, drums, harpsichord, accordion
"Never in Your Sun" – 4:06
Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, synthesizers, drums, percussion, harmonica

Side two

"Spiritual Walkers" – 5:13

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer, drums, percussion
Edwin Birdsong – Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer
Larry Gittens – trumpet
Bob Malach – saxophone
Janice Moore, Cheta Akins, Carolyn Garrett, Ruthell Holmes, Kay Gibbs, Valencia Cox – background vocal

"Land of La La" – 5:12

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, synthesizers, electric piano, percussion, drums
Ben Bridges – guitar
Rick Zunigar – guitar
Renee Hardaway – background vocal

"Go Home" – 5:18

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, synthesizers, drums, vocoder
Bob Malach – saxophone
Larry Gittens – trumpet

"Overjoyed" – 3:42

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, background vocal, acoustic piano, environmental percussion (incl.: crickets, bird sounds, ocean, pebbles in pond, stone dropped, crushing leaves), Yamaha CS-80 synthesizer
Earl Klugh – guitar
Paul Riser – string arrangement

"It's Wrong (Apartheid)" – 6:52

Stevie Wonder – lead vocal, synthesizers, drums, percussion, kora
Musa Dludla, Thandeka Ngono-Raasch, Linda Bottoman-Tshabalala, Muntu Myuyana, Lorraine Mahlangu-Richards, Fana Kekana, Tsepo Mokone – background vocal

Stevie Wonder – producer, performer, writer, composer

Bob Bralove, Brad Buxer, Abdoulaye Soumare – synthesizer programming

Gary Olazabal – synthesizer programming, recording engineer, associate producer, audio mixing

Bobby Holland – photography (album cover/booklet), concept designer (album cover)

Renee Hardaway – concept designer (album cover)

Johnny Lee – art direction (album cover)