This installment of Cover Me Monday takes a look at one of my favorite songs from Stevie Wonder’s seminal album TALKING BOOK.

Blame It On The Sun – Stevie Wonder

Co-written by Wonder and his wife at the time, Syreeta Wright. It is a beautiful song that Wonder performs with his usual soul and depth but as much as I love the Wonder version I have always felt that the song would benefit from being sung by a woman. So lucky for me three women have done covers of the song: Syreeta Wright herself, Lauryn Hill (while with the Fugees) and Icelandic songstress Emiliana Torrini.

Blame It On The Sun – Syreeta Wright

The late Syreeta Wright is a criminally unsung vocalist who has an almost pitch perfect tone to her voice. She does a wonderful job vocally with her version of the song but it suffers from a bit too much production in my estimation.

Blame It On The Sun – The Fugees

Lauryn Hill does a great job on this song and her husky, imperfectly cool vocal style at times seems more masculine than the Wonder version. The only downside to this version of the song is the same issue I have with most songs by The Fugees and that is the fact that the other two members of The Fugees are on it. Lauryn solo would have been much better.

Blame It On The Sun – Emiliana Torrini

My personal favorite cover of this song and a real departure from Torrini’s usual style of song. Her ethereal vocal quality adds just the right amount of femininity to the song while Torrini herself reaches deep down and adds a bit of soul to her vocals. Its hard to think that this is the same woman who sang “Gollum’s Song”.