Up there with Stevie and Marvin and Sam?

How much would you pay?

Yes, but not as recognized. Maurice was known as a member of Earth Wind and Fire first.

Stevie and Marvin and Sam were basically always solo acts and thats were they found

their greatest sucess.

^^Sam wasn't always a solo act. He started out in the Highway QC's and the Soul Stirrers.

elem55 said:

Yes, but not as recognized. Maurice was known as a member of Earth Wind and Fire first.

Stevie and Marvin and Sam were basically always solo acts and thats were they found

their greatest sucess.

Perfect response elem.....

I always felt that Maurice could hold his own with some of the great vocalists, but because he was part of a group that had 2 lead singers, he would never be as well known as Stevie or Marvin or Sam because he was Earth Wind and Fire first and foremost before he was Maurice White....and so most people would not even know who he was...other than true music aficionados

I would NOT say that.

It depends on how you look at this. I can't see Maurice as an "r&b singer" because he's much more than just a singer or vocalist. He's definitely one of the great musician legends that's still living...though not completely healthy, but he's still with us.

Maurice has MS, correct? so he no longer sings at all? Was Phillip Bailey the other lead singer of EWF? Also, did Maurice write all of EWF's songs?

scriptgirl said:

Maurice has MS, correct? so he no longer sings at all? Was Phillip Bailey the other lead singer of EWF? Also, did Maurice write all of EWF's songs?

No he has Parkingson's disease.

scriptgirl said:

Did Maurice write all of EWF's songs?

No, he cowrote the bulk of the band's catalog.

panther514 said:

Listen to the early EW&F tracks and you will hear a second falsetto layered under or matching phillip's vocals..that's not Phillip..thats Maurice. Phillip himself said that Maurice could hit any note vocally that he can. Maurice is one of the greatest vocalists of our time. One of the most underrated ever.

I thought that was Jessica Cleaves doing the harmonies with Phillip.

MickyDolenz said:

who is jessica cleaves

Maurice definately had a set of pipes on him. Although I love Phillip's voice, the overwhelming majority of my favorite EW&F songs had Maurice doing the lead vocals.

kitbradley said:

Maurice definately had a set of pipes on him. Although I love Phillip's voice, the overwhelming majority of my favorite EW&F songs had Maurice doing the lead vocals.

yup. lord knows i loves me some 'reasons', 'fantasy' and 'i'll write a song', but i also loves me some 'love's holiday', 'it's all about love', 'shining star', 'that's the way of the world' and on and on.

maurice could put it down, too.

Phillip's voice was too high for me

It's funny. I've NEVER thought of EW&F as R&B.

Graycap23 said:

It's funny. I've NEVER thought of EW&F as R&B.

What do you consider Mighty Mighty, Yearnin Learnin, Lover's Holiday, Kalimba Story,

All About Love, Keep Your Head to the Sky, Reasons?

phunkdaddy said:

Graycap23 said:

It's funny. I've NEVER thought of EW&F as R&B.

What do you consider Mighty Mighty, Yearnin Learnin, Lover's Holiday, Kalimba Story,

All About Love, Keep Your Head to the Sky, Reasons?

Honestly............I considered those as pop songs. EW&F is a pop group in my opinion. I've never considered them anything but that. Especially when the music was new. When thier best stuff came out, I was 10 to 16 years old.

2 me............that was "pop". Funk was the Ohio Players, P-funk.

R&B was the Isley's and others.

scriptgirl said:

who is jessica cleaves

She was an early member of the group. She's singing lead on this song.

If you click on the link, there is a performance by the group. Jessica is the woman wearing the light blue dress.

SOUL!

Graycap23 said:

phunkdaddy said:

What do you consider Mighty Mighty, Yearnin Learnin, Lover's Holiday, Kalimba Story,

All About Love, Keep Your Head to the Sky, Reasons?

Honestly............I considered those as pop songs. EW&F is a pop group in my opinion. I've never considered them anything but that. Especially when the music was new. When thier best stuff came out, I was 10 to 16 years old.

2 me............that was "pop". Funk was the Ohio Players, P-funk.

R&B was the Isley's and others.

EWF could get funky, but they were far from Parliament

Graycap23 said:

phunkdaddy said:

What do you consider Mighty Mighty, Yearnin Learnin, Lover's Holiday, Kalimba Story,

All About Love, Keep Your Head to the Sky, Reasons?

Honestly............I considered those as pop songs. EW&F is a pop group in my opinion. I've never considered them anything but that. Especially when the music was new. When thier best stuff came out, I was 10 to 16 years old.

2 me............that was "pop". Funk was the Ohio Players, P-funk.

R&B was the Isley's and others.

Wow. WOW. To me, this is like someone saying Led Zeppelin is a pop group, not rock.

Come on now, you know pop is nothing more than music white folks/ majority America likes and listens to. Whatever 'category' or culture it originates in, if mainstream white folks also dig it in large enough numbers, the song "crosses over" (from where? to where? ...A ha!) and becomes pop. You do remember when even Michael Jackson went multi-platinum but could only be Best Soul/R&B Male. Now Don't Stop Til You Get Enough is widely considered a pop/r&b song. Different times.

EW&F was funk horns, r&b rhythms and soulful vocals, African-inspired rhythms and instrumentation that also had "pop accessibility." I always shake my head at that phrase...accessible to who? lol

The 'Latin Explosion' with Ricky Martin is the same deal, right? Mainstream white audience isn't listening anymore so his stuff is just Latin now, not Latin pop; cracks me up.

Just out of curiousity, in their heyday, was EWF a crossover act?

JumpUpOnThe1 said:

Graycap23 said:

Honestly............I considered those as pop songs. EW&F is a pop group in my opinion. I've never considered them anything but that. Especially when the music was new. When thier best stuff came out, I was 10 to 16 years old.

2 me............that was "pop". Funk was the Ohio Players, P-funk.

R&B was the Isley's and others.

Wow. WOW. To me, this is like someone saying Led Zeppelin is a pop group, not rock.

Come on now, you know pop is nothing more than music white folks/ majority America likes and listens to. Whatever 'category' or culture it originates in, if mainstream white folks also dig it in large enough numbers, the song "crosses over" (from where? to where? ...A ha!) and becomes pop. You do remember when even Michael Jackson went multi-platinum but could only be Best Soul/R&B Male. Now Don't Stop Til You Get Enough is widely considered a pop/r&b song. Different times.

EW&F was funk horns, r&b rhythms and soulful vocals, African-inspired rhythms and instrumentation that also had "pop accessibility." I always shake my head at that phrase...accessible to who? lol

The 'Latin Explosion' with Ricky Martin is the same deal, right? Mainstream white audience isn't listening anymore so his stuff is just Latin now, not Latin pop; cracks me up.

Hindsight is 20 20. When I was 10.....it was pop.

Graycap23 said:

phunkdaddy said:

What do you consider Mighty Mighty, Yearnin Learnin, Lover's Holiday, Kalimba Story,

All About Love, Keep Your Head to the Sky, Reasons?

Honestly............I considered those as pop songs. EW&F is a pop group in my opinion. I've never considered them anything but that. Especially when the music was new. When thier best stuff came out, I was 10 to 16 years old.

2 me............that was "pop". Funk was the Ohio Players, P-funk.

R&B was the Isley's and others.

Wow. When Maurice did his thing on the Kalimba you considered that pop.

The Phoenix horns. The funky interludes in between songs. Cmon Gray. I could

count on one hand songs by EWF i would consider pop and that's mainly After The

Love is Gone, Fantasy, and In The Stone. You could check out the majority of EWF's

audience during their heyday and you could tell they were an r&b band.

scriptgirl said:

phunkdaddy said:

Graycap23 said:

Honestly............I considered those as pop songs. EW&F is a pop group in my opinion. I've never considered them anything but that. Especially when the music was new. When thier best stuff came out, I was 10 to 16 years old.

2 me............that was "pop". Funk was the Ohio Players, P-funk.

R&B was the Isley's and others.

Wow. When Maurice did his thing on the Kalimba you considered that pop.

The Phoenix horns. The funky interludes in between songs. Cmon Gray. I could

count on one hand songs by EWF i would consider pop and that's mainly After The

Love is Gone, Fantasy, and In The Stone. You could check out the majority of EWF's

audience during their heyday and you could tell they were an r&b band.

I'm not arguing that it is not R&b or funk. I'm saying when the materail came out back in the 1970's.......and I heard it, R&B was NOT what came 2 my mind and it was NOT what I was feeling.

Did I dig the music? Yes. Did I buy the music? Yes. Was it R&B 2 me? No.