The Essential Earth, Wind & Fire is a compilation album by American band Earth, Wind & Fire issued in July 2002 by Columbia/Legacy. The Essential Earth, Wind & Fire has been certified Gold in the US by the RIAA.
Overview
With the LP came a sampler which featured remixes of Can't Hide Love and Let's Groove. During October 2002 the remix sampler was issued as a single and got to No. 4 on the UK Dance Singles Chart.
Critical reception
Mark Anthony Neal of PopMatters proclaimed "The Essential Earth, Wind, and Fire, chronicles the best music of arguably the most popular R&B/soul band of the last three decades." Barry Walters of Blender, who gave a four out of five star rating, opined "the 34 tracks on The Essential encompass these funky spiritualists’ many sides, from preachy (“All About Love”) to sensual (“Can’t Hide Love”) to ecstatic (“Boogie Wonderland”)." With a 4.5 out of 5 star rating Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic wrote "The single-disc Greatest Hits remains the choice for the casual and the curious listener due to its concise concentration of classics, but anybody who wants a thorough retrospective should choose this." Howard Dukes of SoulTracks also called the album "a collection that will definitely get the party started".
Track listing
2014 reissue
Personnel
Maurice White – vocals, kalimba, timbales, drums, producer, compilation producer
Verdine White – vocals, bass, percussion
Philip Bailey – vocals, congas, percussion
Larry Dunn – piano, organ, synthesizer, programming
Ken Yerke – violin
Harris Goldman – violin
Rollice Dale – viola
Dennis Karmazyn – cello
Harry Schultz – cello
Fred Jackson Jr. – saxophone
Herman Riley – saxophone
Jerome Richardson – saxophone
Tommy Johnson – tuba
Harvey Mason – percussion
Paulinho Da Costa – percussion
Beloyd Taylor – background vocals
Joe Wissert – producer
Charles Stepney – producer
Al McKay – producer
Leo Sacks – compilation producer
Accolades
The following accolades attributed to The Essential Earth, Wind & Fire.