Type: Soundtrack, Lyrics are included with the album
Genre: Rhythm & Blues
Review
Stevie Wonder's career in the 1980s was a source of frustration to the fans he had earned in the '60s and '70s. In 1982, there were a few new songs on a greatest-hits album and a duet with Paul McCartney. Then came this soundtrack to a Gene Wilder comedy that was simultaneously more of a pop vocal album than most soundtracks and yet less than a full-fledged Wonder record. The gold-selling number one hit that resulted was the sappy "I Just Called to Say I Love You," a formulaic TV commercial-in-the-making. "Love Light in Flight" also hit, and the album featured Dionne Warwick on two duets and one solo. This was a pleasant record, but slight, and after four years, Wonder fans wanted more than that. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
The Woman In Red Soundtrack is the second soundtrack album released by Motown singing great Stevie Wonder on the Motown label. Also featuring Dionne Warwick, the LP was released in 1984 for the film of the same name. It featured Wonder's biggest hit and international number-one hit, "I Just Called to Say I Love You", which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and also featured the follow-up hit, "Love Light in Flight" (an US Top 20 hit) and "Don't Drive Drunk".
The album reached #4 in the US and #2 in the UK, where it was knocked-off the top spot by the albums Now That's What I Call Music 3 and David Bowie's Tonight. After Songs in the Key of Life and Hotter Than July, Wonder reached #2 in the UK charts failing to achieve a #1 album, a milestone that he never was able to achieve. However, I Just Called to Say I Love You was a massive hit in the UK, reaching #1, becoming the 2nd best-selling single of 1984 (only behind Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?) and, even more impressively, the third most successful single of the entire 1980s there. (With 1.775 million copies sold only in the UK, the single is actually the 13th most successful ever in Britain.)
