When it was originally released in 1978,
The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 was a succinct, ten-track collection of the group's best and biggest singles up to that point. The excellent
"September," a brand-new song, soon became a hit in its own right, and the non-LP
Beatles cover
"Got to Get You into My Life," recorded for the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film, also makes its first appearance on an
EWF album here, as does the track
"Love Music." EWF's commercial prime hadn't yet ended when this collection appeared; thus, it's missing several crucial latter-day hits, including the slinky
funk of
"Serpentine Fire," the
ballad "After the Love Has Gone," and the
disco smashes
"Let's Groove" and
"Boogie Wonderland." But even if it's an incomplete hits collection,
The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 still ranks as a strong encapsulation of
EWF the
funk innovators. The singles gathered here constitute some of the richest, most sophisticated music the
funk movement ever produced; when the absolute cream of the group's catalog is heard in such a concentrated fashion, the effect is dazzling. That's why
The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 was remastered and reissued along with the rest of
EWF's catalog, even though it's been supplanted by more extensive single-disc (
Greatest Hits), double-disc (
The Essential Earth, Wind & Fire), and triple-disc (
The Eternal Dance) anthologies. 1998's
Greatest Hits now stands as the definitive single-disc
EWF overview, but for the budget-minded and the
disco-phobic, this still makes for an excellent listen. ~ Steve Huey
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