Stevie Wonder ~ That Girl 1982 Soul Purrfection Version

"That Girl" was Stevie Wonder's longest running #1 R&B hit, spending nine weeks in the pole position but was not available on an LP until well after the song completed its run at #1.

At the time Motown was experiencing hit after hit with Rick James "Street Songs", Stevie's "Hotter Than July" and the Diana Ross/Lionel Richie duet "Endless Love" that arrested the #1 slots on both pop and R&B for more than seven weeks. However, Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross had already signalled their intentions to sign with other labels and based on Stevie's schedule was not expecting an album of new material for at least another two years.

Jay Lasker was president of Motown Records at the time and he began to prepare for 1982 by asking Stevie to put together a greatest hits album of his post 1971 hits to fill the gap. Stevie countered that he would include four new songs and be a double album. Three million dollars was going to be paid to Stevie to complete the compilation.

"That Girl" was a Wonder production, written and performed by Stevie with no outside help. He delivered the song to Motown in December of 1981 and told Lasker he would complete the rest of the album by the end of the following month. Motown released the song ahead of the album and it hit #1 in March, but nothing was submitted. "That Girl" completed its run and Wonder delivered the rest of the album in May.

Lasker estimated that Wonder lost out on the potential sale of one million units due to the lack of a supporting album when the song was at its most popular.