Tonight, after a few hours relaxing and playing a game with the girls, I was feeling fairly mellow and the first song that came to my mind was September, by Earth, Wind & Fire.  I saw that I had played it in August 2018, almost two years ago … time for a redux … but oops … I reduxed it already and just this past February, as a matter of fact.  Sigh … but wait!  I haven’t played this one yet!

Released in 1979, this hit #2 in the U.S. and #4 in the UK.  This was written by David Foster, Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin.  Says Graydon …

“David Foster produced an album for Jaye P. Morgan in 1976. It’s a great record. It’s available in Japan, and never did anything here, really. Then he was at Motown playing some songs with Jaye to try to get a deal over there.

He was in the middle of playing a song and he forgot the chorus, and he ad-libbed the chorus to ‘After The Love Has Gone.’ He comes over to my house, and we went into my little dinky studio. He sits down at the piano, and he says, ‘Listen to this chorus.’ He plays it, and I said, ‘Hey, here’s an idea for a verse.’ And I went, ‘da da dom, A major 7, da-D-minor-6, da da A major 7, bom ba da da da F-sharp minor.’ And he just immediately continued on with that, and we had the whole song written in about half an hour/45 minutes.

We called Champlin: ‘Bill, get over here, we need a lyric.’ David was producing Champlin at the time. David recorded it with Champlin, maybe three different versions. He got one that he really liked, though. But then David was also writing with Maurice White for Earth, Wind & Fire for the I Am album. He played the song for Maurice, and Maurice loved it. David called me and says, ‘Hey, man, Earth, Wind & Fire wants to record it, but I don’t want to tell Champlin that it’s gonna have to get pulled off his record. Will you do it?’ I said, ‘I sure will.’ (laughs) I called Bill and I said, ‘Bill, here’s the story.’ And he says, ‘I’m not an idiot, man.’ (laughing) I said, ‘I’m glad you say you’re not an idiot. Because they say this thing’s gonna be a single for sure. And this could be big.’ Needless to say, that song still generates good money. It’s unbelievable.”

The song won two Grammy Awards. Earth, Wind & Fire took the trophy for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance by a Group, an award they won four times in their career.  The track also won for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, which is bestowed on the writers. It was the first win for David Foster, who would go on to win a total of 16 Grammys. In 1993, he was named Billboard’s Top Singles Producer and Top R&B Producer, while receiving the largest number of Grammy nominations and winning Producer of the Year for Whitney Houston’s soundtrack to The Bodyguard. He also co-wrote the #1 single St. Elmo’s Fire with John Parr.

After the Love Has Gone
Earth, Wind & Fire

For a while, to love was all we could do
We were young and we knew, and our eyes were alive
Deep inside we knew our love was true
For a while we paid no mind to the past
We knew love would last
Every night somethin’ right
Would invite us to begin the dance
Somethin’ happened along the way
What used to be happy was sad
Somethin’ happened along the way
And yesterday was all we had

Oh, after the love has gone
How could you lead me one
And not let me stay around?
Oh, after the love has gone
What used to be right is wrong
Can love that’s lost be found?
For a while to love each other
With all we would ever need
Love was strong for so long
Never knew that what was wrong
Baby, wasn’t right
We tried to find what we had
Til sadness was all we shared
We were scared this affair
Would lead our love into
Somethin’ happened along the way
Yesterday was all we had
Somethin’ happened along the way
What used to be happy is sad
Somethin’ happened along the way
What used to be was all we had

Oh, after the love has gone
How could you lead me on
And not let me stay around?
Oh, oh, after the love has gone
What used to be right is wrong
Can love that’s lost be found?

Oh, oh, after the love has gone
What used to be right is wrong
Can love that’s lost be found
Oh, oh, after the love has gone

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: David Foster / Jay Graydon / William B. Champlin
After the Love Has Gone lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management