“Do you remember… the 21st night of September?”
Last February, while in the throes of mourning cultural iconoclasts like David Bowie, the music world was hit with a double-whammy: Maurice White, the lead singer of ’70s funk band Earth, Wind, and Fire, succumbed to Parkinson’s disease. Today NPR has a wonderful look at the band’s most popular song, “September” —
“We went through all the dates: ‘Do you remember the first, the second, the third, the fourth … ‘ and the one that just felt the best was the 21st,” Willis explains. “I constantly have people coming up to me and they get so excited to know what the significance was. And there is no significance beyond it just sang better than any of the other dates. So … sorry!”
In honor of Maurice and the 21st of September, throw on the jam and shuffle around just like your parents used to do back in the day. It’s a song that’s impossible not to dance to.