Say Say Say waste[d] the rest of the album on bathos and whimsy". The "Los Angeles Times" Paul Grein also reviewed the McCartney album and opined that the singer had redeemed himself with the success of the "spunky" song "but plunged back into wimpdom with 'No More Lonely Nights'". Journalist Whitney Pastorek compared the song to McCartney's 1982 duet with Stevie Wonder, "Ebony and Ivory". She asserted that "Say Say Say" was a better song, and had a better "though slightly more nonsensical" music video, adding that the song had no "heavy-handed social content". Penn State's "The Daily Collegian" described the track as
Stevie Wonder but eventually became a major success when re-released as a single in 1970, which prompted Robinson to reconsider his intention of leaving the group). In 1968 he recorded an album of instrumental soul/jazz tracks, mostly harmonica solos, under the title "Eivets Rednow", which is "Stevie Wonder" spelled backwards. The album failed to get much attention, and its only single, a cover of "Alfie", only reached number 66 on the U.S. Pop charts and number 11 on the US Adult Contemporary charts. Nonetheless, he managed to score several hits between 1968 and 1970 such as "I Was Made to Love Her",