| "Reasons" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Earth, Wind & Fire | |
| from the album That's the Way of the World | |
| Recorded | Autumn 1974 |
| Genre | Funk |
| Length | 4:59 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Writer(s) | Philip Bailey, Charles Stepney, Maurice White |
"Reasons" is a love ballad by Earth, Wind & Fire from their sixth album, That's the Way of the World. The album was the group's most successful and contained their first hit,[1] "Shining Star". The 1975 album served as the soundtrack for the 1975 Harvey Keitel film That's the Way of the World that featured the group.
The song features the falsetto singing of Philip Bailey who continued to perform the song as part of the band's touring repertoire decades later.[2][3] Although it never charted,[4] "Reasons" has endured. The song, which was written by Bailey, Charles Stepney, Maurice White has appeared on dozens of albums, including almost all of Earth, Wind & Fire's greatest hits and compilation albums.[5]
Allmusic.com describes the song as a georgeous ballad.[1] When reviewing the album, Rolling Stone's Gordon Fletcher described the song as among their ballads cut from The Four Tops/Tavares mold.[6] Over twenty years later, one album guide described it as one of the group's seminal hits.[6]
Among the albums that include the song are Gratitude (1975), The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 (1978), The Eternal Dance (1992), Greatest Hits Live (1996), Earth, Wind & Fire: Greatest Hits (1998), The Ultimate Collection (1999), The Essential Earth, Wind & Fire (2002), and That's the Way of the World: Alive in 75 (2002).[5] The version on the 1975 studio album That's the Way of the World was 4:59, while the version on the 1975 Gratitude album was 8:23. Most early albums use one of these two lengths, but later career live albums have different length versions.[5]
"Reasons" has been covered by artists such as The Manhattans on The Manhattans (1976) and Nelson Rangell on Far Away Day (2000).[7] On the 2007 Earth, Wind & Fire tribute album, Interpretations: Celebrating the Music of Earth, Wind & Fire, Musiq Soulchild covered the song during the period that he was known and credited as Musiq.[8] Reasons has also been sampled by Master P on Intro/17 Reasons featured on his album 99 Ways to Die.[9] The song has also been sampled in "Muscle Grip" from X-tra Naked by Shabba Ranks, "Budsmokers Only" from E 1999 Eternal by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, "More Reasons" from Purple Haze by Cam'ron, "Seasoned" from Charlie Hustle: The Blueprint of a Self-Made Millionaire by E-40 and "2 Step" by Fly Gypsy.[10]
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