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.)



Track listing

1. "The Woman In Red" 4:39
2. "It's You" (w/Dionne Warwick) 4:55
3. "It's More Than You" 3:15
4. "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (album version) 6:16
5. "Love Light in Flight" 6:54
6. "Moments Aren't Moments" (solo by Dionne Warwick) 4:32
7. "Weakness" (w/Dionne Warwick) 4:13
8. "Don't Drive Drunk" 6:33

Love Light In Flight has always been my shit

Its been a while since I spun this as an album, but its a really weird soundtrack by Stevie. Some tracks are just trying too hard "Woman in Red" or " Don't Drive Drunk" or just sappy and insubstantial, "I Just Called" and "Moments arent Moments". "Love Light in Flight" is classic Stevie Wonder in melody and production and "Its You" and "Weakness" are some top notch ballads.

Stevie WAS experimenting here, but with those damned 80's synths where an old fashioned clav would have been great on "Woman in Red" or some Moog and Arp on "Don't Drive Drunk". It really has a thrown together feel to it, which up to then, wasn't present on any of his other albums. I see why motown was on the fence with it until he included "I Just Called"...

xlr8r said:

Yes. I don't have the soundtrack but I do have his 4 Cd set. Glad that one made the cut because it is excellent.

1. "The Woman In Red" 4:39
2. "It's You" (w/Dionne Warwick) 4:55
3. "It's More Than You" 3:15
4. "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (album version) 6:16
5. "Love Light in Flight" 6:54
6. "Moments Aren't Moments" (solo by Dionne Warwick) 4:32
7. "Weakness" (w/Dionne Warwick) 4:13
8. "Don't Drive Drunk" 6:33[/quote]

Most of it is kinda MOR. I don't really like Stevie MOR much. Of course, his songs are always very intricately written and produced, but still....

"I just called..." was, and indeed is still huge in the UK. I love it, and the album version has that spooky vocoder at the end. I quite dig the title track actually. It goes on abit long, but I love the production on it. I do still quite like "it's you" and "weakness" mind, and "dont drive drunk", which again goes on for abit too long, is cool aswell.
[Edited 3/1/10 17:25pm]