13 Of My Favorite Earth Wind & Fire Songs

Jason Elias
The Riff
Published in
8 min readDec 23, 2023

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Photography: Bruce Talamon

The late Maurice White and Earth Wind and Fire helped to create the soundtrack to our lives. Since 1973, they have been a multi-platinum act, have gone on to sell over 100 million albums, and have a success that has crossed genres and generations.

The following thirteen songs are a collection of much-loved tracks that display Earth Wind and Fire’s skills, their uniqueness, and their greatness.

The World’s A Masquerade” (1973)

This is the band’s first album for Columbia, and they hit the ground running. This ponderous ballad has the elements in place: solid jazzy and hooky musicianship and soaring vocals. White, Cleaves, and Philip Bailey had a blend that could have lasted years, but it wasn’t to be. What did last was EWF's special way of having a message but making it accessible while having its own aural stamp.

Devotion” (1974)

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Jason Elias
The Riff

I’m a writer, I’m a music journalist and a pop cultural historian. My work has appeared on the All Music Guide, Rebeat Magazine, Soul Train.com, All About Jazz