Earth, Wind & Fire's true breakthrough came in the form of the
soundtrack to
That's the Way of the World in
1975. In 1974 Earth Wind & Fire worked with Sig Shore, the creator of the motion picture
Superfly, on a new film about the dark side of the recording industry. That's The Way Of The World starred Earth Wind & Fire as "The Group," a new recording act. In the film, Harvey Keitel hears "The Group" performing, and produces their first album. The film's title is repeated throughout the film as a shrug of the shoulders to the music world. Earth Wind & Fire performed the songs in the film, and Maurice had a small speaking part as leader of "The Group."
Though the
film was not a success, the song "Shining Star" became a huge mainstream hit and launched the band's career. and Johnson turned to vocals. It was the first time that the band could afford a full horn section.
Many of the early hits came from long years of touring and soundchecks, and improvisation. Their second song to reach the pop Top 10, "Sing A Song" (Columbia 10251), found its genesis in a soundcheck.
Younger brother
Fred White (whose Chicago background had included playing local clubs as a drummer with Donny Hathaway, later playing with Little Feat) joined the group and after returning from their first European dates with Santana, CBS wanted another album. Also at that time Ralph Johnson turned to vocals.
EWF's June '75 sessions produced "Sing A Song" and "Can't Hide Love", the later written by Clarence "Skip" Scarborough, who wrote or co-wrote many of EWF's biggest hits. These songs helped take Gratitude to a double-platinum status, an unheralded occurrence for any black group of the day; for the first time, the group's horn section (Don Myrick and Louis Satterfield, both from Maurice's Chicago session dates, and Michael Harris) which had become an integral part of the EWF sound was credited on disc. Aside from his EWF duties, Maurice had been developing his Kalimba Productions and had signed two acts - vocalist
Deniece Williams, White produced Top 10 hits like "Free" and "It's Gonna Take A Miracle" for Williams, a former member of Stevie Wonder's Wonderlove backup group. Another track Maurice produced, for the r&b group The Emotions, who had a run of hits with Volt Records from 1969 to 1974 the track "Best Of My Love" , went to #1 on both the pop and R&B charts.
Earth Wind & Fire released
Spirit in
1976; and had hits with singles such as "Getaway" come from outside the group. Verdine White heard "Getaway" for the first time from someone who was producing
Bobbi Humphrey. He indicated to him, that this song would be a great song for Earth, Wind & Fire. The individual wanted to produce it for EWF but that didn't occur so they got the tune, took it into the studio and recorded it. It became a hit song.
In 1976, after helping co-produce and arrange Earth Wind & Fire's
Spirit album and Deneice Williams' "This is Nicey" album,
producer and
songwriter Charles Stepney died of a
heart attack at the age of 45.
Their concerts during this time were loaded with pyrotechnics, magic, laser lights, flying pyramids and levitating guitarists. Magician Doug Henning directed many of their tours throughout the 1970's, and the band included Larry Dunn (keyboards), Al McKay (guitar, sitar), Fred White (drums) and Andrew Woolfolk (sax, flute).
In
1977, the group released another album,
All 'N All. With its mystical cover and replete with songs with metaphysical themes ("Jupiter", "Fantasy" and "Be Ever Wonderful"), All'n All became the group's fifth successive double-platinum album.
Back on the road, EWF were wowing increasingly larger audiences with their spectacular stage show, featuring elaborate production tricks that included the entire group ascending in a pyramid and a disappearing act which saw EWF literally vanishing from sight.
Maurice White in the midst of this started to put on the tour some of the acts that he was also producing at the time, such as
The Emotions,
Deneice Williams and
Ramsey Lewis.
1978 marked the year wherein EWF picked up three Grammy Awards, the third for their version of The Beatles "Got To Get You Into My Life", featured (as were the group) in the movie, "Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band". The film itself was a commercial bomb, and although the soundtrack shipped triple platinum, allegedly it was returned triple platinum. It was also the year that Maurice and managers Cavallo and Ruffalo worked out a deal for the launch of ARC (
The American Recording Company) to be distributed through CBS and the creation of two recording studios, George Massenburg/ARC Studios in West Los Angeles and in Los Angeles, The Complex. The year ended with another hit single, "September" (sometimes called 'Dancing in September"), an additional track added to The Best of EWF (Volume 1), which inevitably reached double-platinum status.
Also Bobby Harris of the
Dazz Band at this time requested and got Philip Bailey, the vocalist of Earth, Wind & Fire, to produce the group's first album,
Kinsman Dazz. Bailey would co-produce the second album,
Dazz, and had a major input into the group's vocal arrangements. In
1979, the band performed "September" at the
Music for UNICEF Concert, broadcast worldwide from the
United Nations General Assembly. They donated their royalties from the song to
UNICEF.
1979 saw the release of
I Am, the group's ninth album (the seventh for Columbia, and the second to be distributed by ARC). Songs from the album included "
In the Stone", "Can't Let Go", and the much-anticipated sad ballad "
After the Love Has Gone", which has cracked the number 2 spot on the
Billboard Pop and
R&B charts.
A good portion of 1979 was spend overseas headlining shows in Europe and Japan. Mid-'79 saw EWF topping the dance music charts with "
Boogie Wonderland", produced by Maurice and Al McKay, and featuring The Emotions. Verdine White claims that "Boogie Wonderland" really was capturing the tail end of the disco era.
Maurice loaned Earth Wind & Fire's signature
Phenix Horns - Don Myrick on saxophone, Louis Satterfield on trombone, Rahmlee Davis and Michael Harris on trumpets - to his other production projects, the Emotions, Ramsey Lewis and Deniece Williams. In the eighties,
Phil Collins came in contact with EWF's horn section, and worked on
Genesis songs like "No Reply At All" and "Paperlate," and on his solo hits like "I Missed Again" and "Sussudio".
The double-album
Faces was released in (
1980) went gold. After the release of this album longtime rhythm guitarist Al McKay left the band to pursue production interests and was replaced by returning electric guitarist Roland Bautista, giving the band a bit of a hard rock feel (compared to McKay).
Raise! released in (
1981) featured their hit single "Let's Groove", and the Grammy Award-winning "I Wanna Be With You". "Raise!" went double platinum.
Powerlight was released in early 1983 and included the hit singles "Fall In Love With Me," and "Side By Side." "Powerlight" went gold. Also In
1983, Earth, Wind & Fire contributed the song "Dance, Dance, Dance" to the soundtrack of the animated film
Rock & Rule. White disbanded Earth, Wind & Fire in
1983 after the synthesized
Electric Universe was released in late 1983 to poor sales and reviews. Maurice White attributes the album's lack of success to its release so quickly after
Powerlight. It was their last release for four years.
During the hiatus, Philip Bailey released his second solo album, "Chinese Wall".
While it was not his first solo album (Bailey recorded a series of gospel LP's for the Myrrh and Word labels), it was his most successful. The first single from that album, a duet with Phil Collins called "
Easy Lover" went gold, and the music video of Bailey and Collins rehearsing their collaboration hit #1 on MTV's video playlist.
Meanwhile, during the hiatus, Verdine White worked behind the scenes, writing and directing videos. He produced a
Level 42 album, and promoted go-go bands like
Trouble Funk and
E.U..
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