Powerlight

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Powerlight
Studio album by Earth, Wind & Fire
Released February 7, 1983
Recorded 1982
Genre R&B
Length 41:23
Label Columbia
Producer Maurice White
Earth, Wind & Fire chronology

Raise!
(1981)		 Powerlight
(1983)		 Electric Universe
(1983)
Singles from Powerlight
  1. "Fall In Love With Me"
    Released: January 22, 1983
  2. "Side By Side"
    Released: May 10, 1983
  3. "Spread Your Love"
    Released: July 22, 1983

Powerlight is the twelfth studio album by Earth, Wind & Fire, produced by the band's leader Maurice White for Kalimba Productions, and released in February 1983. Powerlight has been certified gold for selling over 500, 000 copies in the US by the RIAA.[1]

Powerlight went to number 12 and number 4 on the Pop and R&B album charts and the single "Fall in Love with Me" reached number 17 and number 4 on the Pop and R&B charts respectively.[2] "Fall in Love with Me" was also Grammy nominated for Best R&B vocal performance by A Duo or group.[3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [4]
Robert Christgau (A-)[5]
Warr.org [6]

Allmusic's Craig Lytle refers to the album as "an entertaining piece" and goes on to say that "Throughout the entire album, White's unifying message is fueled by the aggressive rhythms and relaxing melodies".[7] Robert Christgau says that on the album "we're free to gape at this band's spectacular popcraft" and summed up his review by describing Powerlight as "the best argument for universalism they'll ever make".[8]

Samples

"Something Special" has been sampled by Will Smith on the title track of his 1997 album Big Willie Style and "Side by Side" has been sampled by Common on the track Charms Alarm featured on his 1992 album Can I Borrow a Dollar?.[9]

Track listing

Side one
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Fall In Love With Me"  Wayne Vaughn, Wanda Vaughn, Maurice White 5:54
2. "Spread Your Love"  Azar Lawrence, Beloyd Taylor, Maurice White 3:51
3. "Side by Side"  Wayne Vaughn, Wanda Vaughn, Maurice White 5:57
4. "Straight from the Heart"  Philip Bailey, Eduardo del Barrio, Roxanne Seeman, F. Washington 4:42
Side two
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
5. "The Speed of Love"  Earth, Wind & Fire, Tony Haynes, Wayne Vaughn, Maurice White 3:36
6. "Freedom of Choice"  Azar Lawrence, Beloyd Taylor, Maurice White 4:10
7. "Something Special"  Wayne Vaughn, Wanda Vaughn, Maurice White 4:23
8. "Hearts to Heart"  Azar Lawrence, Beloyd Taylor, Maurice White 3:45
9. "Miracles"  D'Astugues, M. DAstugues, Eduardo del Barrio, Jon Lind, Maurice White 4:58
[10]

Charts

Album – Billboard
Year Chart Position
1983 Black Albums 4
Pop Albums 12
Year Chart Position[11]
1983 United Kingdom 22
Singles – Billboard
Year Single Chart Position
1983 "Fall In Love With Me" Black Singles 4
Club Play Singles 31
Pop Singles 17
"Side By Side" Black Singles 15
Pop Singles 76
"Spread Your Love" Black Singles 57
[2]

Performers

  • Backing Vocals, Guitar - Beloyd Taylor
  • Bass - Verdine White
  • Cello - Douglas Davis, Earl Madison, Frederick Seykora, Larry Corbett, Ronald Cooper, Suzie Katayama
  • Double Bass - Arni Egilsson
  • Drums, Percussion - Fred White
  • Guitar - Roland Bautista
  • Harp - Dorothy Remsen
  • Keyboards - Eddie Del Barrio, Rick Kelly, Skip Scarborough, Wayne Vaughn
  • Percussion - Paulinho Da Costa, Ralph Johnson
  • Piano - Maxanne Lewis
  • Saxophone - Donald Myrick
  • Saxophone [Tenor] - Andrew Woolfolk
  • Steel Drums - Robert Greenidge
  • Tabla - Zakir Hussein
  • Trombone - Bill Reichenbach Jr., Charles Lopez*, George Bohanon, Lew McCreary, Louis Satterfield
  • Trumpet - Chuck Findley, Gary Grant, Michael Harris, Oscar Brashear, Rahmlee Michael Davis
  • Viola - Alan Deveritch, Allan Harshman, Carole Mukogawa, David Schwartz, Joel Soultanian, Linn Subotnick, Milton Kestenbaum, Pamela Goldsmith, Roland Karo, Rollice Dale
  • Violin - Anatol Kaminsky, Arnold Belnick, Bill Hybel, Bob Sanov, Brenton Banks, George Kast, Haim Shtrum, Harold Bluestone, Janet Lakatos, Karen Jones, Marshall Sosson, Miwako Watanabe, Myer Bello, Nathan Ross, Nicole Bush, Pamela Tompkins*, Robert Lipsett, Robert Sushel, Ron Clarck*, Shari Zippert, Sheldon Sanov, Stanley Plummer
  • Vocals [Additional] - Ms. Pluto
  • Vocals, Percussion - Philip Bailey

Production

  • Arranged By [Horns, Strings] - Bill Meyers
  • Arranged By [Horns, Strings], Keyboards - George Del Barrio
  • Arranged By [Horns], Trumpet - Jerry Hey
  • Artwork By [Art Direction] - Monte White, Roger Carpenter
  • Artwork By [Illustration] - Shusei Nagaoka
  • Concertmaster - Assa Drori, David Frisina
  • Engineer [Assistant] - Robert Spano, Steve Crimmel
  • Mastered By - Bernie Grundman
  • Mixed By [Additional] - Tom Perry
  • [Production Staff] - Geri White, Leonard Smith, Monte White
  • [Steel Drums Made By] - Rudolph Charles
  • Producer, Vocals, Drums, Kalimba - Maurice White
  • Recorded By, Mixed By - Mick Guzauki
  • Synthesizer [Pianon], Programmed By [Synthesizer] - Larry Dunn
  • Synthesizer [Prophet] - Azar Lawrence[12]

References

  1. ↑ RIAA Certification for Powerlight
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Powerlight - Charts on Allmusic.com
  3. ↑ www.earthwindandfire.com/bio_awards.html
  4. ↑ Allmusic review
  5. ↑ Robert Christgau review
  6. ↑ Warr.org review
  7. ↑ Lytle, Craig. "Powerlight album review". allmusic.com. 
  8. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Consumer Guide Album Earth, Wind & Fire: Powerlight". robertchristgau.com. 
  9. ↑ Earth, Wind & Fire music sampled by others
  10. ↑ "Powerlight - Overview". allmusic.com. Retrieved September 13, 2010. 
  11. ↑ "Powerlight". chartstats.com. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2009. 
  12. ↑ Powerlight on discogs.com
Earth, Wind & Fire
Studio albums
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