Earth, Wind & Fire

• 1. Introduction

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  Earth, Wind & Fire formed in Chicago in 1969, and over the next five decades they sold more than 90 million records worldwide. That number alone would be remarkable. What makes it stranger is how little the band fits into any single category. They played jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin, and Afro-pop, sometimes all at once. Critics at Rolling Stone called them "innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing" and credited them with changing the sound of Black pop. Miles Davis named them his all-time favorite band. Yet the band began as a small songwriting team writing commercials in the Chicago area.

  The questions that follow are worth sitting with. How did a group with roots in session drumming and jingle work become one of the biggest-selling bands in history? What happened when the music business tried to sort them into a box and they refused? Who was the architect behind it all, and what did his Parkinson's diagnosis mean for the band he had built? And what does a flying pyramid at a live concert have to do with any of it?

• 2. Origins and Name

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  Maurice White came to Earth, Wind & Fire by way of Chess Records, where he had worked as a session drummer, and the Ramsey Lewis Trio. In 1969 he joined two friends in Chicago, Wade Flemons and Don Whitehead, and the three formed a songwriting team. They signed with Capitol Records under the name the Salty Peppers and scored a modest regional hit with a single called "La La Time." Their follow-up did not fare as well, and Maurice relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles.

  The name Earth, Wind & Fire came directly from astrology. Maurice's astrological sign is Sagittarius, which according to classical triplicities carries a primary elemental quality of fire and seasonal qualities of earth and air. In the northern hemisphere, Sagittarius falls in autumn, whose element is earth; in the southern hemisphere, it falls in spring, whose element is air. Water, the fourth classical element, was deliberately omitted. The band's name was not a marketing decision but a cosmological statement about its founder's identity.

  With the new name came a new sound and an expanded lineup. White held auditions in Los Angeles and added Michael Beal on guitar, Chester Washington on reeds, Leslie Drayton on trumpet, and trombonist Alex Thomas to complete what was then a ten-man group. He also asked his younger brother Verdine to join. On the 6th of June 1970, Verdine moved from Chicago to Los Angeles to become the band's bassist, a role he would hold for more than five decades.

• 3. Warner Bros. Years

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  Warner Bros. designated Joe Wissert as the band's producer, and their self-titled debut arrived in March 1971. The album reached No. 24 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and earned a Gold certification in France. Critic Larry Ridley of DownBeat awarded it a perfect five-out-of-five stars and wrote that Maurice White had "assembled here a strong musical organization." Bob Talbert of the Detroit Free Press struggled to classify what he was hearing, floating the label "Afro-gospel-jazz-blues-rock" before giving up on taxonomy altogether.

  Shortly after the debut, EWF contributed to the soundtrack of Melvin Van Peebles' 1971 film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, released on Stax Records in June of that year. Then came a second album, The Need of Love, in November 1971. A reviewer at the Chicago Sun-Times called it music that "might be called avant garde were it not so melodic and entrancing." The band built a following on college campuses, but internal tension rose and the group fractured. With only Verdine remaining, Maurice rebuilt the lineup from scratch.

  The reconstituted band included vocalist Philip Bailey, percussionist Ralph Johnson, keyboardist Larry Dunn, and saxophonist Ronnie Laws. A fortuitous performance at New York's Rockefeller Center brought them in front of Clive Davis, then-President of Columbia Records. Davis bought their contract from Warner Bros. and the band moved to CBS/Columbia with Wissert still aboard. Their Columbia debut, Last Days and Time, appeared in October 1972 and reached No. 15 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart. Philip Bailey, who had grown up in Denver, recommended his former East High School classmate Andrew Woolfolk to fill the saxophone chair when Laws departed.

• 4. The Ornate Sound

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  Head to the Sky in 1973 was the first sign of real commercial traction, rising to No. 2 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and earning a Platinum certification in the United States. Then came Open Our Eyes in March 1974, recorded at James William Guercio's Caribou Ranch Studio, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called it a "tour de force." On the 6th of April 1974, EWF performed at the California Jam, a West Coast rock festival that drew 200,000 people and was later televised by ABC.

  The turning point arrived in 1975 when film producer Sig Shore approached the band to score a new movie called That's the Way of the World. The band found the finished film unconvincing and released the soundtrack album before the film even premiered. That gamble paid off: the album reached No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and was eventually certified triple platinum in the United States.

  The single "Shining Star" went to No. 1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Soul Singles chart. The achievement made EWF the first Black act to top both the Billboard album and singles charts simultaneously. The song won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. A key reason for the album's richer sound was producer Charles Stepney, who had previously worked with the Dells, Minnie Riperton, and Terry Callier. His writing and production brought an orchestral flourish that reshaped the band's sonic identity going forward. Stepney died suddenly of a heart attack on the 17th of May 1976, in Chicago, at the age of 45. White named the next album Spirit in his honor.

• 5. The Live Spectacle

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  By the mid-1970s, an EWF concert had become something significantly more than a music show. Audiences encountered pyrotechnics, lasers, levitating guitarists, and a flying pyramid. Magician Doug Henning worked on many of the tours, with his then-assistant and eventual successor David Copperfield also involved. Choreographer George Faison staged the theatrical elements that gave the shows their visual grammar.

  The live double album Gratitude, released in November 1975, captured some of this energy on record. It reached No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and the Top Soul Albums charts and was certified triple platinum in the United States. The single "Sing a Song" peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Songs chart. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune found "an Ellingtonian fusion of styles on this live masterpiece."

  All 'n All, released in November 1977, took the band further outward. Maurice's month-long trip through Argentina and Brazil directly inspired the record. The New York Times described it as the band "pushing their music ever more in a febrile jazz-rock direction." The album won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus. Then came an appearance in the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where EWF covered the Beatles' "Got to Get You into My Life." That cover became the film's biggest hit, reaching No. 1 on the R&B chart. The band also performed at the Music for UNICEF Concert in January 1979, broadcast worldwide from the United Nations General Assembly, alongside ABBA, the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and Rod Stewart.

• 6. Hiatus and Return

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  Maurice put the band on hiatus in 1984, believing they needed a pause. During the break he remained active as a producer, working with Barbra Streisand on her 1984 album Emotion and with Neil Diamond on his 1986 album Headed for the Future. He also released a self-titled solo album in 1985 on Columbia that reached No. 12 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart. A cover of Ben E. King's "Stand by Me" from that album climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart.

  Philip Bailey used the hiatus to record his own work, including a 1984 gospel album, The Wonders of His Love, which earned a Grammy nomination, and a Grammy-winning follow-up in 1986, Triumph. The Phenix Horns, the brass section Maurice had built after the success of That's the Way of the World, began collaborating with Phil Collins and Genesis in 1981. Ralph Johnson produced the Temptations' 1984 album Truly for You.

  Maurice reassembled the band in 1987 with returning members Verdine, Johnson, Bailey, and Woolfolk joined by new guitarist and vocalist Sheldon Reynolds and drummer Sonny Emory. A new horn section called the Earth, Wind & Fire Horns took the place of the Phenix Horns. The comeback album, Touch the World, issued in November 1987, reached No. 3 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart. The single "System of Survival," written by Skylark, went to No. 1 on both the Billboard R&B and Dance charts.

• 7. Honors and Later Life

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  On the 6th of March 2000, hip-hop artist Lil' Kim inducted Earth, Wind & Fire into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at a ceremony held at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where the standing ovation marked the 15th annual event. Former members including Al McKay, Larry Dunn, Fred White, and Johnny Graham attended alongside the core group. At the ceremony they performed "Shining Star" and "That's the Way of the World."

  In June 2000, EWF performed at a White House state dinner hosted by President Bill Clinton in honor of King Mohammed VI of Morocco. The king was so moved by the performance that he personally requested the band return to perform in Morocco for his 37th birthday celebration on the 21st of August 2000. Following the September 11 attacks, band members donated $25,000 to the American Red Cross at a concert held just two days later, on September 13.

  Maurice White disclosed a mild affliction with Parkinson's disease and eventually stepped back from touring, though he continued to write, produce, and make occasional appearances on stage. He died on the 4th of February 2016. At the Grammy Awards on the 15th of February 2016, Stevie Wonder and Pentatonix performed "That's the Way of the World" as a tribute. The band received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously alongside Maurice that same evening. In 2019, EWF received the Kennedy Center Honors, becoming the first Black group inducted into that institution. The Los Angeles City Council declared September 21 to be Earth, Wind & Fire Day, formalizing a date connected to one of the band's most recognized songs.

• 8. Reach and Influence

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  Miles Davis called EWF his "all time favorite band," citing how they carried horns, electric guitar, singers, and more within a single ensemble. Quincy Jones declared himself the "biggest fan of Earth, Wind & Fire since day one." Dionne Warwick named them her favorite group of all time.

  The list of artists who have cited EWF as an influence is long and spans genres well outside soul and R&B. It includes Alicia Keys, Janet Jackson, Prince, Justin Timberlake, Amy Winehouse, Erykah Badu, Lenny Kravitz, OutKast, Gloria Estefan, Mark Ronson, and Bonnie Raitt. Jamiroquai, Jill Scott, and Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy have each pointed to the band as a formative reference.

  In March 2023 the band filed a lawsuit against a group calling itself the Earth, Wind & Fire Legacy Reunion. The following year, a federal judge in Miami ruled in their favor, affirming the trademark against a tribute act composed of former side musicians with no original members. As recently as the 3rd of August 2025, Earth, Wind & Fire appeared as guests of Sabrina Carpenter during her headline set at Lollapalooza, performing "Let's Groove" and "September" before a new generation of listeners who likely knew both songs long before they knew the band's full story.