“Are ya feelin’ good?” Stevie Wonder asked the crowd at Madison Square Garden. Yes, we responded. “Are you feelin’ us?” Yep. “Are you feelin’ me?” Fuck, yeah! With a two-hour set that included visits by Prince (playing guitar on “Super­stition”) and Tony Bennett (on “For Once in My Life”), Wonder slayed a packed MSG house, offering up beloved hits as well as deep-cut classics like “As,” “Too High” and “If It’s Magic.” Wonder told the faithful that the death of his mother in 2006 totally devastated him but inspired him to return to the stage, for his first proper tour in twelve long years. The S.S. implores all fans of music to see the Great Stevie before this run is up. And believers, keep on believin’ that he’ll tour again and again. “It was a moment of great happiness,” Mr. Tony Bennett told the S.S. after the show, adding that he and Stevie will hit the studio in February for a jazzy album of Wonder’s songs. “I love Stevie. He’s the contemporary Irving Berlin — his songs are songs you want to remember forever.” Yes!

* * * *

On a gray day in New York, producer Mark Ronson — who broke through in ‘07 with his work for Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen — lifted our spirits, screening for the S.S. a handful of tracks he’s working on now. Wino has been talking about hitting the studio with him in December. “I don’t know if she seems ready to go back in,” he says. No matter: His top priority is Daniel Merriweather, the Australian R&B phenom featured on the killer cut “Stop Me,” from Ronson’s own 2007 album Version. “His songwriting is amazing,” Ronson told us. “His lyrics are not disturbed in a Marilyn Manson sense, but his mind is a bit weird.” Therefore, lyrics like “Givin’ myself to you is like givin’ myself to a chain saw” and “I can’t get my ass off the couch because of you” are par for the course. Look out for his album in the spring. Ronson also tipped us off to another rising star, husky-voiced London singer-songwriter Adele. “She’s primed to be the next British thing,” he says. And he’d know.

* * * *

The 1991 masterpiece The Black Album was the last Metallica disc recorded outside their cozy confines in the Bay Area. With that in mind, producer Rick Rubin encouraged the guys to lay down new tracks in L.A. “Rick thought it’d be beneficial for the gang to get out of the comfort zone of our back yards,” Lars Ulrich tells us. “We’ve been tripping up and down to L.A. since April, and the results have been better than good.” As of Thanksgiving, the only hurdles left are overdubs and James Hetfield’s vocals. “That’s it,” says Ulrich. “We’re very alive and well.” Sweet.