Happy Earth Day from your friends at the Dog Denizens of Genesee Park (DDGP)!As holiday aficionados will tell you, Americans celebrate Earth Day to foster awareness and appreciation of our environment and its resources. We could wax about the importance of saving the planet... our we could pay homage to the classic rhythm and blues (R&B) funk band, Earth Wind & Fire (EWF).
Drummer Maurice White named the group for three of the elements of earth, wind and fire. EWF achieved notice when it recorded the soundtrack to Melvin Van Peebles' 1971 movie, Sweet Sweetback's Baadassssss Song. Although EWF became a favorite amongst college campus, all members except White and his brother Verdine left the band.
White retooled the band, which recorded Top-30 hits "Evil" and "Keep Your Head to the Sky". EWF performed at the California Jam, a West Coast jazz festival, in 1974 and played on pianist Ramsey Lewis' Sun Goddess album.
EWF's That's the Way of the World, which Billboard magazine lauded as "a very tightly performed and produced package," generated title hit "That's the Way of the World" and "Shining Star". The group's concerts turned show business on its ear with pyrotechnics, lasers and illusions. EWF spit out hits throughout the late 1970s with "Getaway", "Saturday Night", "Serpentine", "Fantasy", "Got to Get You Into My Life", "September" and "Boogie Wonderland". Released in November 1979, the Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 went quintuple platinum in sales.
EWF went techno in the 1980s and released hits "Let's Groove" and "Wanna Be With You". Although White produced albums for Barbra Streisand, Cher and his own solo endeavor in the 1980s, EWF continued to record albums through the millennium. The band was inducted into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
