9 October 2016, No. 199, Stevie Wonder, ‘I Wish’

Sometimes Stevie Wonder’s tunes’ names bring to my mind neither the groove nor the melody. Regarding No. 199 (the first of a Stevie double header due to the same Serato quirk that lumped the last three P-Funk tunes together), the title “I Wish” doesn’t quite do it for me. I have to look at my notes that say “sneakin’ out the back door” and “those things,” and then I’ve got it. I blame the prominence of the lyrics “those things” and the unaccented “I wish” for my imperfect recall. The same features make me associate the song with Lauryn Hill’s “Doo-Wop (That Thing),” Faze’s “The Things You Do,” and a third song that I suspect doesn’t exist and may just be an as-yet unrealized mashup of the Hill and Faze tunes.