The Best Of Earth, Wind and Fire Vol. 1 (Vinyl)

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;