Note: For an index of all articles in all three Favorite Songs series, click here, then scroll down.

Who They Are: Earth, Wind & Fire are a joyously genre-crossing ensemble formed by former Ramsey Lewis Trio drummer Maurice White in 1969. The group issued a pair of funk-centric albums  in 1971, then provided the score to Melvin Van Peebles’ seminal blaxploitation film Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, before Maurice White rebooted the band with an entirely new line-up; only his brother, bassist Verdine White, survived the transition. Vocalist-percussionist Philip Bailey joined for 1972’s Last Days and Time, and by 1973, the group’s “classic line-up” had largely cohered, debuting on their first platinum certified album, Head to the Sky. Over the ensuing decade, Earth, Wind & Fire scored platinum or gold certifications for eight additional albums, along scores of killer singles, most of them chart monsters in their own rights, before Maurice White put the group on hiatus in 1984 to pursue other creative and musical interests, including producing hit albums for Ramsey Lewis, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, among others. Philip Bailey also emerged as a significant solo artist in this period, including a hit duet with Phil Collins; Genesis and Phil (solo) also borrowed EWF’s horn section during this period. In 1987, Maurice and Verdine White, Bailey, Ralph Johnson (drums/percussion), and Andrew Woolfolk (reeds) from the classic line-up reunited with additional players to re-launch the Earth, Wind & Fire brand; the latter incarnations of the group have earned another three Gold Records, but never quite hit the same level of dense studio success as they had in the ’70s and early ’80s. The respect and affection for their work never dwindled, though, and they were inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, among many other honors over the years. Maurice White was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in the late 1990s, and slowly stepped away from active involvement with the group he had founded; he died of the complications from the condition in 2016. The group continue on on this day, with Verdine White, Bailey, and Johnson as the core members.

When I First Heard Them: Probably in 1973 or 1974, almost certainly on pop radio, where I would have followed the rise and fall of “Mighty Mighty,” “Devotion,” and “Shining Star” (their first #1 single on the Hot 100) on Kasey Kasem’s American Top 40 each week. When I lived at Mitchel Field on Long Island from 1976 to 1980, EWF were big favorites among my social circle of the time, so I acquired and listened to their older albums (except the first two), and then stayed abreast with all of their work through the 1984 hiatus. There was also sort of a “Beatles vs Stones” dynamic between EWF and the sprawling P-Funk empire during that time, for me; one group nominally wholesome and suitable for family play, one group kind of nasty, and reserved for listening when parents were not about. I never quite got back onboard as intensely with the group in its latter days, though I stayed interested in their work and progress. I saw them live for the first time around 1980 at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, at the peak of the classic group’s prowess. I saw them again in Albany, New York, shortly after September 11, 2001, the first concert I attended after that devastating attack. The show was powerful and moving on a variety of planes, highly memorable because of the circumstances associated with being together with a large, diverse community in public again after a period of hunkering down and being frightened by what had happened and what was yet to come. It was one of the finest examples in my personal experience of the power of music to uplift and transform.

Why I Love Them: It’s tough to straddle diverse genres and make popular magic in so doing, but Earth Wind & Fire were utter masters at that approach during their heyday, blending jazz, soul, funk, pop, rock and African melodies/rhythms into a perfect, seamless whole, technically challenging, but utterly captivating to audiences of all stripes. Their music is dense, crafted with multiple vocalists, batteries of percussion, horns, strings, keys, reeds and more, but the song craft and accessibility of their output never suffered for that, whereas other groups attempting similar approaches often succumbed to unwieldy bloat. The heart of the group, for me, has always been Verdine White, an utterly killer bass player who provided the anchor around which the rest of the group sailed, his lines crisp, clear, and mighty, mighty indeed. The vocal blend of Maurice White (baritone) and Philip Bailey (tenor) was also magical, both of them effortlessly stepping into and out of lead lines as dictated by the necessity of the songs and ranges they were tackling. Underneath all of those technical and sonic aspects was a general vibe of joy, improvement, celebration, and uplift in both their arrangements and the words they put atop them. This is music to make you think, yeah, and to make you move, sure, but at bottom line, it’s music to make you happy. And it works, without the sickly-sweet glurge that so many other ostensibly inspirational bands so often spew. To lightly amend one of their most famous lyrics: “When you feel down and out, play an EWF song, it’ll make your day.” Yes, that. Precious, rare, and oh so valuable.

#10. “Mighty Mighty,” from Open Your Eyes (1974)

#9. “Sun Goddess,” from Sun Goddess (Ramsey Lewis)(1974)

#8. “September,” from The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 (1978)

#7. “That’s the Way of the World,” from That’s the Way of the World (1975)

#6. “Gratitude,” from Gratitude (1975)

#5. “Shining Star,” from That’s the Way of the World (1975)

#4. “Fantasy,” from All ‘n All (1977)

#3. “Getaway,” from Spirit (1976)

#2. “Sing a Song,” from Gratitude (1975)

#1. “Serpentine Fire,” from All ‘n All (1977)