MANSFIELD, Mass. — Stevie Wonder may have sold too many records the first time around to have the kind of rags-to-riches comeback that has come to soul stars such as Al Green and Bettye LaVette, but last night’s show at the Comcast Center proved that while two decades of sporadic and middling albums may have dimmed Wonder’s pop star, he’s still got the goods to make his case for the pantheon.

The show began with a short talk from Wonder that included a shout-out to the Celtics and a campaign pitch for Barack Obama. It ended with a ragged monologue and a vocal exploration of the phrase “see ya.” In between, however, it was taut and fast-paced, with an emphasis on hit material, and a couple of earlier explorations — the “I Just Called to Say I Love You” Wonder was scarcely in evidence.

The early section of the show was a masterful exhibition of Wonder’s ability to mix impulses, as the opening “As If You Read My Mind” made the nasty sound uplifting, and the following “Master Blaster” made the uplifting sound nasty.

He switched back and forth between the poles with the funk stomp “Did I Hear You Say You Love Me” and the mischievous “All I Do,” all of which, as it turned out, set up the bona fides to credibly sell the sheer beauty that is “Knocks Me Off My Feet.” (The latter song saw Wonder conduct the audience in a sing-along, which at first marred the song but as he continued to push the idea, cuing in various combinations of instruments from his band and the audience’s voices, his sheer doggedness eventually made the gimmick work.)

He’d already basically proven his point by then, and the rest of the night was like that in miniature, with the biblically ominous funk of “Higher Ground” giving way to the chiding, gliding “Don’t You Worry About a Thing”; the claustrophobic yet lyrically gritty “Visions” seguing into the stomping “Living for the City” and the celestial key changes of “Golden Lady.”

After the first real pause in the set, Wonder took on some lesser-known stuff, including the new “Keep Fooling Yourself, Baby Girl,” and “The Sweetest Somebody I Know,” both of which lacked the grit to lend polish to the scolding of the former or the romantic sentiments of the latter. The early ballad “Creepin’” followed up, and after giving a spotlight to his daughter, backup singer Aisha Morris, and a bit of “Isn’t She Lovely,” Wonder took the final trip to the stars of the night, with a glorious “Ribbon in the Sky.”

Then the hits came thick and fast, with “My Cherie Amour” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” covering the early days, “Sir Duke” “I Wish” and a joyous “Do I Do” covering more recent (i.e., ’70s and ’80s) stuff. Of course, with a song book like Wonder’s to pick from, there’s no way the band could lose (allusion intentional).

For that matter, there’s no way Wonder could lose with the band he had assembled (led by longtime bassist Nathan Watts) — even the everybody-take-a-solo instrumental “Spain” smoked, and you can even sell a line such as “honeysuckle chocolate-chippin’ kisses full of love” when you’ve got such a tight horn section stabbing in between your lyrics. And Wonder hasn’t lost an inch off his vocal fastball, as the ballads especially proved — he single-handedly saved the technique on the endings of “Visions” and “Ribbon in the Sky.”

According to our friend the Internet, some of Wonder’s recent shows have been overlain with too much between-song patter, but last night’s show was mostly to the point. OK, leaving daughter Aisha Morris standing on stage to soak up adulation during “Isn’t She Lovely” (which of course was written about her at her birth) was a bit much, as was bringing a radio-contest winner up to sing “Superstition” with him at the end (OK, that was more than a bit much) (though she wasn’t bad).

rmassimo@projo.com