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by Bob Stanley of

As far as the UK was concerned, 1968 proved to be Stevie Wonder's most successful year in the sixties - two Top 5 hits, and another single nudging close to the Top 10. It's odd to think, then, that most of this was due to curious DJs playing B-sides and someone else trawling the Motown archives.

My Cherie Amour was originally buried on the B-side of 1969 single I Don't Know Why (aka Don't Know Why I Love You), which itself had reached the Top 20 in Britain in the spring of 1969. It was a rare example of Berry Gordy and the Motown machinery missing a gold-plated classic, having first been recorded in November 1967.

By now in his senior year at Michigan School for the Blind, had a daily one-hour 'piano period' and during one of these he wrote - or Oh My Marcia as it was initially titled for his then-girlfriend. Berry Gordy thought it had "a little potential" and passed it on to staff writers Sylvia Moy and Hank Cosby for a little bit of polish. "Stevie would attach a girl's name to just about every musical idea he had" Moy remembered. "I'm sick of it, I told him, I'm not going to call it Oh My Marcia! I had studied French in school, so I considered the feeling he had in there, and I called it My Cherie Amour." As Stevie and the fabled Marcia had split some time before, it was probably for the best.

, Stevie's darkest hit of the sixties, was also recorded during the Let It Bleed sessions by the Rolling Stones, but their version remained unreleased until 1975. My Cherie Amour, on the other hand, instantly exploded as an easy listening standard, just as would four years later - it has since been covered by everyone from Al Martino and Tony Bennett to James Galway and Boney M.

Stevie's biggest UK hit of the sixties was another escapee from the vaults. The Ronald Miller/Bryan Wells-penned was even older than My Cherie Amour, his vocal having been recorded back in January 1967. The backing track was cut at the end of 1966 (making it three years old by the time it reached no.2 in Britain and no.7 in the States) and it was originally set to be a single for Barbara McNair - her vocal was recorded over the same backing track ten days before Stevie's. You have to feel for the luckless McNair, who recorded a batch of great Motown songs that never saw the light of the day until the CD age - check out for one.

By the time Yester Me Yester You Yesterday finally came out, Stevie was much more interested in recording his own material - 1970 found him breaking away from the classic Motown sound with the ebullient , and he became one of the biggest names of the new decade.