For years I didn't consider getting this much, because I of course have all his classic 1972-1980 run, and I never fully realized that this was baited with four new songs (one per LP side), each released as singles at the time. I have since read that this was the first (or one of the first) greatest hits albums to do something like this, although the practice seems to have quickly become to bait the collection with a bunch of crap. The four songs included here, however, are legitimate tracks, and make up something like one third of the playing time. So I picked up a used, remastered version of this in a nice digipack. If you were to grade just the 12 previously-released tracks I suppose you would have to give it a 9 (A) or higher, even if you think Wonder is primarily an "album artist" (and then maybe still not get it because you had no use for it). Strangely, though, the other tracks might simultaneously make you drop the grade and lead you to pick up a copy. Myself, I would probably grade the 12 previously-released tracks standing alone as a 9.5 (high A) (not an essential collection give how essential the source albums are), but dock it a notch for the lesser quality 4 new tracks that make up the rest of the collection, and for the one so-so track from Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.
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