Weather

Does Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" celebrate the last day of summer?

What does the date in the iconic song represent? Is the 21st night of September the last of summer?

Posted Updated

By
Tony Rice
, NASA Ambassador

Social media feels a little funkier today as people ask, "Do you remember the 21st night of September?"

In 2019, Los Angeles even declared the date "Earth, Wind and Fire Day." But what is the significance of September 21 in the group's chart topping song?


Some, including a professor of music theory at New York University, interpret it as a reference to the last day of summer. The day before the astronomical beginning of autumn. Not a bad assumption considering that the de facto band-leader Maurice White has a strong interest in astrology at the time. In fact, the band's name came from elements of his astrological sign.

Is Sept. 21 even the last day of summer? It is this year, but was the day before the last day of summer in September 1978 when Earth, Wind and Fire were in the studio recording the song for their upcoming album "The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1"

When is the last day of summer?

The first astronomical day of Autumn falls (pun intended) nearly equality between Sept. 22 and 23. The variation comes from misalignment between the length of the calendar year and tropical year, or the time it takes for the Earth to complete a trip around the Sun.

Autumn begins tomorrow with the September equinox when the Sun is directly over the equator at 3:20 p.m. EDT. This moment in time happens about 6 hours later each year, except on leap years when that forward progress is erased and the equinox occurs 18 hours earlier.

Looking back in the eastern timezone since the switch to the Gregorian calendar in October 1582, the September equinox happens on Sept. 22 in 50.6% of the years, and Sept. 23 in 48.3% of the years.

It last fell on Sept. 24 in 1903 and 1904, because leap year was skipped in 1900 (every 4 years except years evenly divisible by 100, but not 400, complexity necessary to better align to that 365.24219 tropical year). You have to go back to the late 15th century to find a September equinox on the 21st.

If we look at the Pacific timezone where the band calls home, another 4% of those last summer evenings come on September 21st, but that's still not where the date in the song comes from.

Songwriter Allee Willis on her induction into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry (Image courtesy of the United States Library of Congress)

The songwriter speaks

Allee Willis shared the story behind the song before her 2018 induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. This Grammy, Emmy, and Tony winning songwriter also collaborated with Bob Dylan, James Brown, Patti LaBelle, and Herbie Hancock, wrote The Rembrandts’ 1995 hit “I’ll Be There for You (Theme from Friends)” and co-authoring Broadway musical "The Color Purple".
"It was the very first song I wrote with Maurice White. It was within five minutes of meeting each other,” Willis told American Songwriter Magazine “When I walked in, the band was working on the intro and I thought ‘please let this be the one they want me to work on!’ It was the happiest sounding thing I had ever heard."
White and Willis disagreed throughout the three months spent writing the song about th "ba-dee-ya" lyric throughout the song."I felt extremely strongly that lyrics had to be seriously intelligent.. not just sing-songy." explained Willis in an interview with the Library of Congress.
During the song's final recording session White won and the lyric stayed. Willis described in a 2014 NPR interview what she called her "greatest lesson ever in songwriting ... never let the lyric get in the way of the groove."

"There is no significance beyond it just sang better than any of the other dates."

 Credits 

Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.