September (Earth, Wind & Fire song)

"September"
Single by Earth, Wind & Fire
from the album The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1
B-side	"Love's Holiday" "Can't Hide Love"
Released	November 18, 1978
Format	7" single 12" single
Recorded	September 1978
Genre	R&B disco funk soul
Length	3:35
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Maurice White Al McKay Allee Willis
Producer(s)	Maurice White
Earth, Wind & Fire singles chronology
"Got to Get You into My Life" (1978) "September" (1978) "Boogie Wonderland" (1979)

"September" is a song by American funk band Earth, Wind & Fire, written by Maurice White, Al McKay, and Allee Willis. It was recorded during the I Am sessions and released as a single in 1978. Featured on the band's album The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1, "September" reached number one on the US R&B chart, number eight on the Billboard Hot 100,^[1] and number three on the UK singles chart.^[2]

White's unusual lyrics for the chorus were debated by Willis: "I said, 'We are going to change 'ba-dee-ya' to real words, right?' ... I learned my greatest lesson ever in songwriting from him, which was never let the lyric get in the way of the groove."^[3]

Reception

The song was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry and certified gold in the US (Until the RIAA lowered the sales levels for certified singles in 1989, a Gold single equaled 1 million units sold.) "September" was later certified Gold for digital sales by the RIAA.^[4][5][6] The song was also later released as "December", chord changes & melody remained identical, with lyrics re-written for the "...Twenty-fifth of December...", performed by Earth Wind & Fire, as well, on a later album.

Remixes

• In 1998, Italian DJ X-Treme recorded a remix of the song, which appeared on his album X-Treme^[7] and another remix titled "September (Rap Mix)", which appeared on the 1999 compilation album Dancemania X1.^[8]
• In 1999, the song was remixed by Phats & Small titled "September 99" and was a dance hit.
• In 2015, electronic musician Throttle, gave his own spin on the song, and released it as a single on Ultra Music on November 13.

Covers

• In 1993, American pop singer Michael Jackson originally planned to re-record with Earth, Wind & Fire on his "Greatest Hits" album.
• In October 1996, Australian R&B group Past To Present briefly charted with a cover of the song.
• In 1998, jazz bassist Brian Bromberg performs a mostly instrumental version of the song on the album You Know That Feeling.
• In 2000, Ukrainian child star Assol sings "V Sentjabre" on her first album Alye Parusa.
• In 2001, the song was covered by Sisqó and Vitamin C as a duet for the movie Get Over It. It played during the credits.
• In 2004, Japanese singer Asako Toki covered the song on her album Standards.
• In 2006, instrumental math rock band Don Caballero referenced the guitar riff throughout their song "Palm Trees in The Fecking Bahamas" for their album World Class Listening Problem.
• In 2007, Kirk Franklin does a gospel rendition of the song on the Earth, Wind & Fire tribute album Interpretations: Celebrating The Music Of Earth, Wind & Fire.
• In 2007, French singer Christophe Willem Recorded the song for the movie Disco.
• In 2008, Gordon Goodwin arranged the song for his 18-piece big band "Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band" on his album Act Your Age.
• In 2009, the song was covered by musical duo Pomplamoose as a birthday present to the lead singer's father. It was uploaded on YouTube on September 30. Their version of the song appears on the 2010 album Tribute to Famous People.
• In July 2013, the song was covered by OMG Girlz in their song "Do You Remember".
• In the Netherlands, X-Factor's second finalist Richy sung this in one of the broadcasts.
• The song has been performed three times on American Idol, by Anwar Robinson, Danny Gokey, and Colton Dixon. All were eliminated after except for Gokey.
• The song has been performed by Boogie and the Yoyoz, a popular Midwest Cover Band, winners of the 2016 WAMI award for Cover Band.
• In 2016, Earth, Wind & Fire re-recorded "September" with Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick for the film Trolls and its soundtrack.^[9]

Samples

• In 1996, Filipino singer Regine Velasquez sampled the song for the single "Fly" as part of her album Retro.
• In 1997, house singer Crystal Waters sampled the song for her single "Say... If You Feel Alright".
• In 2002, Kylie Minogue sampled the song for the live version of "Spinning Around" at the Fever Tour.
• In June 2008, Girl Talk sampled the song for his mashup "In Step" and was released on the album Feed the Animals.
• The song was sampled by Polish musician Norbi in his hit single "Kobiety są gorące" ("Women are hot").
• The song was sampled in the OMG Girlz song, "Do You Remember".
• The ba-de-ya chorus of the song was sampled in Enrique Iglesias' song "Everything's Gonna Be Alright" from his 2010 album Euphoria.
• A slightly sped-up version of the chorus appears during the ad-lib that concludes Big Sean's 2015 song "I Don't Fuck With You".

Appearances in other media

• The song has been featured in movies such as The Ringer, Our Family Wedding, Soul Food, Dan in Real Life, Lost & Found, Get Over It, Night at the Museum, Last Vegas, Barbershop: The Next Cut, and The Nice Guys.
• The 2011 French movie Intouchables features the song during the opening sequence.
• The song's remix, "September 99", is played in the Japanese nightclub in the film Babel.
• It was used as the theme song for the 2002 Japanese drama Zoku-Heisei Meotojawan.
• The song was featured in Shameless on the Season 2 episode "Hurricane Monica ".
• The song was featured in Family Guy on the Season 11 premiere episode "Into Fat Air", showcasing Stewie in a casino scene.
• The song was featured in The Cleveland Show on the Season 1 finale episode "You're the Best Man, Cleveland Brown".
• The song was featured in American Dad! on the Season 1 eighteenth episode "Finances with Wolves".
• This song has been featured on NBC's TV series Chuck
• The song also appears on the promo of ABC for their hit shows premiering in the Fall 2008.
• On December 14, 2007, the song was covered during Fox Television's reality-competition The Next Great American Band by Nashville big-band group Denver and the Mile High Orchestra.
• Ruff Ruffman parodied the song for Season 3 of FETCH! as "The 29th of September".
• Japanese comedic performer, Smelly, parodied the song with his promotional video "Suki Suki Smelly".^[10]
• The song has been used in video games such as the European release of Donkey Konga, in the Xbox 360 game Dance Dance Revolution Universe which a remix titled "September 99" is featured and the video game Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore.
• A cover version of the song also appears in the Nintendo DS video game Elite Beat Agents and the Wii game Wii Music.
• The song is in GuitarFreaks V4 and DrumMania V4.
• The song is featured in the 2016 dance video game Just Dance 2017.
• The song was used in a point-and-click game called Isis.
• The song was used as the entry theme for boxing champion Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns in the late 1970s. Hearns said in an interview he liked the song's reference to September 21, which was the date of one of his early victories as an up-and-coming fighter in the Detroit area and also the birthday of Alexis "Eastland" Cherniak, one of his early mentors.
• The song served as Al Gore's campaign theme during his 2000 US Presidential campaign.
• It is also featured on a stereo test disc that came with some 2003 models of the Toyota Avalon.
• The song was featured in a commercial announcing the Subway anniversary in 2012.
• In Apple Stores, the iPad, iPhone, and iPod store samples have a default preloaded music library, which includes this song.
• Earth, Wind & Fire performed this song (as well as Pure Gold) with the Japanese idol group SMAP in a 2006 episode of the group's variety program, SMAP×SMAP.
• Earth, Wind & Fire sang a special TV-related version of the song with The Black Eyed Peas at the 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.
• Earth, Wind & Fire performed the song in the Closing Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
• The song was used in the wedding ceremony and reception of characters Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon, in the finale of the CBS TV series The Mentalist broadcast on February 18, 2015.
• The song was used in the end scene of the CBS TV series Scorpion - Season 1, Episode 17 "Going South" (23 Feb 2015) - with Sylvester dancing with Megan and then scene transitions to Walter in the warehouse
• The song was used in the end scene of the ABC TV series Black-ish - Season 1, Episode 16, "Parental Guidance" (4 March 2015), in the wedding celebration montage. With recent uses on The Mentalist and Scorpion, this was the third use of this song during the last five minutes of an episode of a broadcast network series in the space of 15 days.
• The song was featured in 2014–2015 Brazilian soap opera Boogie Oogie
• Jeremy Vine and Karen Clifton danced the Cha-cha-cha to the song in the 13th series of Strictly Come Dancing.
• The song was ranked number 8 out of the top 76 songs of the 1970s by internet radio station WDDF Radio in their 2016 countdown.^[11]

Chart performance

Sales and certifications

Accolades

The information regarding accolades attributed to September ' is adapted from AcclaimedMusic.net.^[33]

(*) designates lists that are unordered.

References

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• The Song That Never Ends: Why Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' Sustains NPR Morning Edition from September 19th, 2014. at npr.org