The Story of “Sun Goddess”

One thing I have learned in my musical career is that predictions about hit records often do not come true. The songs you work the hardest on and have the highest hopes for often do not live up to those hopes. At the same time, the songs you least expect to become top-sellers are the ones that resonate the strongest with the public. This was the case with “Sun Goddess.”

In the mid 70s I was working on a Ramsey Lewis Trio album for Columbia Records. I was recording along with Morris Jennings on drums and Cleveland Eaton on bass at PS Recording, a little studio on East 24th Place in Chicago. I had written some new material. We did a version of Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City.” The album was shaping up nicely but it took on a whole new character after I heard from my friend Maurice White from Earth Wind & Fire.

Maurice was the drummer for the Ramsey Lewis Trio in the late 60s. After a few years in the trio he came to me and explained an idea for a new group he was forming that blended jazz, R&B, on-stage magic and theatrics, dance and other influences from all over the musical and performing arts spectrum. To be honest, I thought he was crazy and I think I told him, “Take a couple of aspirin and I’ll see you tomorrow.” Fortunately, he ran with his idea and by the mid-70s they were one of the most popular groups in the world. Maurice called from New York to tell me he written a new tune for me. He said it “will make ‘The In Crowd’ look like a pimple.” We met back in Chicago soon after. Maurice brought along his brother Verdine White to play bass, Donald Myrick to play tenor sax, guitarist Johnny Graham and Earth Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey. Since we all thought this new tune was destined to be the next big hit, we spent three solid days on it. Maurice is a brilliant drummer and an equally brilliant songwriter and producer. We perfected every nuance of the song. At the end of the those three days, it was a recording we were proud of and we knew it was “hot.” In fact, that’s what we called it: “Hot Dawgit.”

After those three days of polishing and perfecting, Maurice mentioned that he had another song that might be fun to record. It was a tune that was good for “blowing” as musicians say: a song with a relatively simple form conducive to improvised solos. We spent all of six hours recording this “fun little song.” As promised, it was perfect for “blowing.” Donald Myrick played wonderful saxophone and I had some fun playing Fender Rhodes. The song sounded like it needed voices, but there were no lyrics. Again with little planning and perfecting, Maurice and Verdine White along with Philip Bailey harmonized on some wordless vocals that went “way-oh, way-ay oh, bop-bop way-oh.” After that the song was complete, except for the title. Someone asked Maurice while he was on his way out of the studio, “What should we call this one?” His response was, “I don’t know…how about ‘Sun Goddess?’”

We liked the title well enough that we called the entire LP Sun Goddess. “Hot Dawgit” was released as the debut single, leaving “Sun Goddess” as an album track. “Hot Dawgit” did reasonably well as a single. It received a little bit of airplay, but nothing like the smash we were sure it was destined to be. At the same time, the full-length LP was selling much better than expected. Columbia Records did a little research and found that the moderate airplay “Hot Dawgit” received was not responsible for this. It was something unexpected: word of mouth. People were talking about another song they loved on the new LP. They were walking into record stores and asking where they can find this new song that goes “way-oh, way-ay-oh, bop-bop-way-oh.”

We were delighted to find out people were connecting with this song and pleasantly surprised it was this “fun little tune” we did almost as an afterthought to the big hit single. Columbia Records edited the original seven-minute recording of “Sun Goddess” down to a four-minute radio friendly version and that became a hit single in its own right. Later that year, I went on the road with Maurice and the rest of Earth Wind & Fire as their opening act. I found out what it was like to play for 20-thousand seat arenas. Up until that time, my trio was playing in clubs, theaters and festivals. Yes, it was the mid-70s and we were on tour with Earth Wind & Fire, so we had to wear clothing to keep up with their very prominent stage presence. That was the first and only time I wore a fringed leather jacket on stage, which was not my favorite look upon looking at old pictures. But it was a wonderful period that brought my music to a larger audience. Fortunately, the fringed leather jacket is no longer required to play “Sun Goddess,” but the fans I have been fortunate to have kept and made since the mid-70s still consider this “fun little tune” to be among their favorites.