ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
You are viewing: Who Wrote September Song
Whether or not you know her name, you probably know her work.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SEPTEMBER”)
EARTH WIND AND FIRE: (Singing) Do you remember the 21st night of September?
SHAPIRO: That’s “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire. Grammy winner Allee Willis wrote it. She died yesterday at 72. Willis never learned to play an instrument or read music. She absorbed the music of her hometown, Detroit. As a kid, she spent hours outside Motown Records.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALLEE WILLIS: Once I got my license, I would drive down, just park the car and then sit on the lawn. And you could hear the music coming through the wall.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE”)
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MARVIN GAYE: (Singing) I heard it through the grapevine.
SHAPIRO: In the mid-’70s, Earth, Wind & Fire asked her to help write their next album.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WILLIS: As a white Jewish girl getting a break, you could not get better than Earth, Wind & Fire.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SEPTEMBER”)
EARTH WIND AND FIRE: (Singing) Ba-dee-ya (ph), say, do you remember, ba-dee-ya, dancing in September?
SHAPIRO: Willis also wrote the theme song to “Friends…”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I’LL BE THERE FOR YOU”)
THE REMBRANDTS: (Singing) I’ll be there for you when the rain starts to…
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SHAPIRO: …And helped write songs for the Broadway musical “The Color Purple.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “THE COLOR PURPLE”)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) Like the color purple, where do it come from?
SHAPIRO: In recent years, Willis ran a kitsch museum in her house and threw wild parties. And as she told the website Great Big Story…
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WILLIS: If I wasn’t allowed to be creative, I would shrivel up and die. I – open the coffin. When you throw me in there, that’s when I stop. Though probably I’ll still be, like, banging the sides, hearing some kind of beat.
SHAPIRO: Songwriter Allee Willis, who died this week at age 72.
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Category: WHO
