Ease on Down the Road

"Ease on Down the Road"
Single by Diana Ross & Michael Jackson
from the album The Wiz: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
B-side	"Poppy Girls" (instrumental by Quincy Jones)
Released	September 21, 1978
Format	7" single
Recorded	1977
Genre	R&B, soul, disco
Length	3:54
Label	MCA
Writer(s)	Charlie Smalls
Producer(s)	Quincy Jones Tom Bahler
Michael Jackson singles chronology "Just a Little Bit of You" (1975) "Ease on Down the Road" (1978) "You Can't Win" (1979) Diana Ross singles chronology "Lovin' Livin' and Givin'" (1978) "Ease on Down the Road" (1978) "Pops We Love You" (1978)

"Ease on Down the Road" is a song from the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz, an R&B re-interpretation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Charlie Smalls–composed tune is the show's version of both "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" and "We're Off to See the Wizard" from the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz. In the song, performed three times during the show, Dorothy and her friends the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion dance their way down the Yellow Brick Road and give each other words of encouragement.^[1]

Two versions of the song have been released as charting singles: one associated with the Broadway show by studio group Consumer Rapport in 1975, and a second recorded by Diana Ross and Michael Jackson for the 1978 feature-film adaptation of The Wiz.

History

Early versions

The song was performed in the original Broadway production by Stephanie Mills (Dorothy), Hinton Battle (Scarecrow), Tiger Haynes (Tin Man), and Ted Ross (Cowardly Lion), who also perform the song on the original 1975 cast album for The Wiz. The song was a number-one disco hit for five non-consecutive weeks in a recording by the disco studio group Consumer Rapport. Produced by Stephen Y. Scheaffer and The Wiz musical arranger Harold Wheeler,^[2] the Consumer Rapport version hit the Billboard Soul Singles chart, peaking at #19 and the Hot 100, peaking at #42.^[3]

Diana Ross/Michael Jackson version

In 1977, "Ease on Down the Road" was recorded as a duet between Diana Ross and Michael Jackson and released as the theme song of the 1978 film adaptation of The Wiz. As with the rest of the music in the film, the film version of "Ease on Down the Road" was produced by Quincy Jones. The recording was one of Jackson's first collaborations with Quincy Jones, who became his main producer during the late 1970s and 1980s.

Released as a single by MCA Records in late summer 1978, the song missed the U.S. Top 40 by one position, peaking at #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached #17 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart the same year. Allmusic's William Ruhlmann wrote that duet between Jackson and Ross has "spectacular vocal firepower" and that it outperforms the 1975 version by Consumer Rapport.^[4] The recording also earned Jackson his first Grammy Award nomination with Ross (his previous two were with his family group, The Jacksons) in the category of Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1979.

In 1980, Jackson was a guest on Kraft Salutes Disneyland's 25th Anniversary and, along with Disney characters (Mickey Mouse, The Seven Dwarves, Donald Duck, Pinocchio, Minnie Mouse, Chip 'n' Dale, Pluto, Winnie the Pooh, The Three Little Pigs and Goofy), performed the song in a medley with the Disney signature song, "When You Wish upon a Star".

Charts

In popular culture

• Della Reese performed the song in the 1975 episode "Della, Della, Della" of the comedy program Sanford and Son along with Fred Sanford.^[6]
• In 1980, The Muppet Show featured the song during episode 510, in a bizarre retelling of Pied Piper of Hamelin.
• In 1977, the song was performed by the cast of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour in a bizarre skit based on Pinnochio.^[7][8]
• Stephen King references the song in the Dark Tower novel The Gunslinger.
• The song appears in NBC's 2015 production of The Wiz Live!, performed by the TV special's stars Shanice Williams, Elijah Kelley, Ne-Yo, and David Alan Grier.^[1]
• In 2015, Saturday Night Live cast members Sasheer Zamata, Michael Che, Jay Pharoah, and Kenan Thompson sang part of the song, while respectively portraying Dorothy and her friends in a crossover between The Wiz Live! and the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. At the end of the sketch, they sang it again while teaching the 1939 Scarecrow (played by Ryan Gosling) how to dance the Dab.^[9]

References