John Prine Covers Stevie Wonder for Spotify Singles

Legendary singer-songwriter John Prine is the latest to pair up with Spotify for the streaming platform’s Spotify Singles series, releasing a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To Say I Love You” and performing his own “I Have Met My Love Today.”

The “I Just Called To Say I Love You” cover is drastically transformed, doing away with the synthesizers, heavy bass and smooth vocals of the soul artist’s original. Instead, Prine’s signature, almost-monotonous rasp and finger-picked guitar bring a genuine and truly endearing tone to the track.

In contrast, “I Have Met My Love Today”—while maintaining the spirited, calypso rhythm found in the original—adds in a lead slide guitar at the forefront of the track and layers in harmonies done by The Secret Sisters (also heard on the Wonder cover). The resulting version is much busier, and, oddly enough, almost beach-y.

The track was pulled from Prine’s most recent album, The Tree of Forgiveness, which was released in April on his own independent label, Oh Boy Records. The album was Prine’s first in over 13 years, and it—along with his Spotify Singles session—was produced by Dave Cobb. The album charted at career highs, topping out at No. 5 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart.