Stevie Wonder, “All in Love is Fair” | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

On the 3^rd edition of Throwback Vibez (2022), we recollect and reflect on “All in Love Is Fair” by Stevie Wonder. 

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he vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome – we don’t discriminate ‘round here! On the 3^rd edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2022), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “All in Love is Fair”, performed by 🎙 Stevie Wonder.

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Theme & Lyrics ✍

“All is fair in love / Love’s a crazy game / Two people vow to stay / In love as one they say.” Well, “In case you didn’t know”, 🎙 Brett Young, 💿 Innervisions is one of the greatest albums of all time. Rolling Stone agrees (they rank it as the 34^th greatest album of all time).  It marks one of three albums that soul legend 🎙 Stevie Wonder was awarded the highly coveted 🏆 Grammy for Album of the Year.  Innervisions features just nine songs but all nine are hits including the marvelous ballad at hand, 🎵 “All in Love Is Fair.”

What makes “All in Love Is Fair” utterly sublime? Honestly, it’s everything! It all starts with those signature, tenor pipes of Stevie Wonder, whose voice is anointed – a godsend.  Wonder sings buttery smooth also rising to the occasion when the lyrics call for it.  The songwriting, handled exclusively by Wonder, is elite – it speaks to heart.  The best moment, unsurprisingly, is the chorus, specifically the final one, where Wonder soars, serving up remarkable authenticity and sincerity:

“But all is fair in love

I should have never left your side

A writer takes his pen

To write the words again

That all in love is fair.”

Besides those utterly sublime, love-filled lyrics, the music is exceptional.  I love the jazzy harmonic progression.  The instrumental is lush, propelling those silky-smooth pipes of Wonder.

 

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Final Thoughts 💭

Ultimately, “All in Love Is Fair” is everything – the perfect song that stands the test of time. Numerous musicians have covered this classic including 🎙 Barbra Streisand and 🎙 Michael McDonald.  Even so, the original, definitive version belongs to nobody else by Stevie Wonder, who wrote, produced, and played all of the instruments.

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🎙 Stevie Wonder • 💿 Innervisions • 🏷 Motown • 📅 1972
Stevie Wonder, “All in Love is Fair”: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 3 [📷: Brent Faulkner, cotton bro,  Motown, The Musical Hype]

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