Table of Contents

The 20th of February 1974

Official U.K. Albums Chart results from Sunday the 17th to Saturday the 23rd of February 1974

Cut-off for sales figures was up to the end of Saturday the 16th of February

Results counted from Sunday the 17th,

and published on Wednesday the 20th of February 1974.

Stevie Wonder

Innervisions

At No.12, on the “The Top 50 U.K. Albums Chart”, the week of my 2nd Birthday, is Stevie Wonder with Innervisions.

An album which outshines…

…the longevity of this chart run during its initial release, and has deservedly become one of the most iconic, important and (unsurprisingly even now) culturally relevant landmarks of modern music. A project which Stevie had been building up to since the dawn of this decade of the seventies.

Stevie Wonder – No.50 in the UK Albums Chart on My Birth Day

Stevie Wonder – No.40 in the UK Albums Chart on My 1st Birthday

Recorded and released…

…slap-bang in the middle of the Blaxploitation wave, which was sweeping the United States especially at this time, the album’s narrative leans so effectively into that gritty undercurrent, that it became apparent that the track Living For The City would come to define the album, even more-so than its title track. With the song’s inserted mini-dramatisation leaving the listener as jagged as the rocks in the foreground of Efram Wolff’s cover artwork. A track which I’ve recently highlighted in its edited single version previously, when I covered this corresponding week’s singles chart.

Stevie Wonder – No.19 in the UK Singles Chart on My 2nd Birthday

At the heart of everything…

…this album holds within the grooves, and throughout it’s whole narrative, when you peel away the tough, abrasive and stony surface, you are left with a vision of hope, optimism and love which transcends everything; and just like the artist’s impression of Stevie on the cover, always looking up.

It’s a sublime album of exquisite gems which, for me personally, since I discovered it many years later in my own life, has always been an absolute joy to listen to. Even now, while writing all this down, it’s turned up loud and carrying me through the exhilaration of that experience once again.

The album…

…had landed solidly into the chart at No.14, at the end of last summer on the 26th of August 1973, and had then climbed up to the Top 10, to sit at No.10, the following week.

It sank into the mid-chart throughout most of the autumn, before ducking out after the 10th of November, only to return again for one extra week to close out that month.

It re-appears for a second time this new year of 1974, to begin a steady climb from the outer edge, which sees it culminate at a lower peak of No.12 this week.

From here,..

…it will dive back down to No.29 next week, before taking another drop the week after to No.38, after which it will drop away once again after the 9th of March.

The album will continue to give more chart presence in the future, and will cross paths with my birthday week once again, which is where I’ll catch up with it on its own chart journey.