{"id":974180,"date":"2019-12-26T07:14:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T14:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=931256"},"modified":"2019-12-26T07:14:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T14:14:03","slug":"allee-willis-september-and-friends-theme-songwriter-dead-at-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/allee-willis-september-and-friends-theme-songwriter-dead-at-72\/","title":{"rendered":"Allee Willis, \u2018September\u2019 and \u2018Friends\u2019 Theme Songwriter, Dead at 72"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/10310162bl.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Allee Willis, the prolific pop songwriter behind hits like Earth, Wind and Fire\u2019s \u201cSeptember\u201d and the <em>Friends<\/em> theme \u201cI\u2019ll Be There for You\u201d died Tuesday at the age of 72.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Willis\u2019 publicist confirmed the songwriter\u2019s death to <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>, adding that Willis died of cardiac arrest at a Los Angeles-area hospital. Willis\u2019 \u201cpartner and soulmate\u201d Prudence Fenton is \u201cin total shock\u201d over the sudden death.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Following the failure of her lone studio album <em>Childstar<\/em> in 1974, Willis soon turned her talents toward songwriting, first collaborating with Bonnie Raitt \u2014 a fan of <em>Childstar<\/em> \u2014 on 1974\u2019s \u201cGot You on My Mind.\u201d Over the next four years, Willis balanced odd jobs with songwriting before linking up with Earth, Wind and Fire\u2019s Maurice White in 1978, a collaboration that resulted in \u201cSeptember.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gs069dndIYk?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI literally have never been to a wedding, a bar mitzvah, anything, where I have not heard that song play,\u201d Willis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/25\/arts\/music\/allee-willis-dead.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told the <em>New York Times<\/em><\/a> of the Earth, Wind and Fire single, which sold more than 10 million copies in its first year of release.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Over a Songwriter Hall of Fame-worthy career that spanned 50 years, Willis wrote or co-wrote hits like the Pointer Sisters\u2019 \u201cNeutron Dance,\u201d Pet Shop Boys\u2019 \u201cWhat Have I Done to Deserve This,\u201d Earth, Wind and Fire\u2019s \u201cBoogie Wonderland\u201d and perhaps her most enduring track, \u201cI\u2019ll Be There for You.\u201d The latter song \u2014 performed by the Rembrandts and now one of television\u2019s most iconic themes \u2014 was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music, but lost to <em>Star Trek: Voyager<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\">\n<h3> Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <!-- .l-article-content__pull--left --> <\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SCQGnVrTsAM?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Willis did win a pair of Grammys: One in 1986 for her contributions to the <em>Beverly Hills Cop<\/em> soundtrack (\u201cNeutron Dance,\u201d Patti LaBelle\u2019s \u201cStir It Up\u201d), and another in 2016 for Best Musical Theater Album for her work on <em>The Color Purple<\/em>\u2019s stage adaptation. <em>The Color Purple<\/em> was also nominated for a Tony Award in 2006.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAllee Willis was a world-renowned creative multi-disciplinary artist and visionary thinker whose imagination and productivity knew no bounds. Inducted into the Songwriter Hall of Fame in 2018, this Grammy, Emmy, Tony and Webby award-winning and the nominated artist had been hailed in the press for more than 40 years,\u201d Willis\u2019 rep Ellyn Solis said. <\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u201cAllee\u2019s incredibly prolific talents were unmatched\u2026 not only as a visual and social artist, but as a painter,&nbsp;&nbsp;director, world\u2019s largest pop and soul kitsch collector, and a raucously hysterical funny one-woman stand-up comedian\/sing-along performance artist. Yet with all of her accolades, Allee Willis was most proud to be recognized for her extreme, over-the-top party-throwing at her famously kitschy Pink Streamline Moderne house known as \u2018Willis Wonderland\u2019 in Los Angeles, California.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">As Willis told the <em>New York Times<\/em> in 2018, \u201cI always had a music career, an art career, set designer, film and video, technology. The parties really became the only place I could combine everything.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i-jdhorGtQI?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><br \/><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Wn9E5i7l-Eg?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><br \/><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OEv4Ncmm9ns?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/allee-willis-september-friends-theme-songwriter-dead-obit-931256\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Allee Willis, the prolific pop songwriter behind hits like Earth, Wind and Fire\u2019s \u201cSeptember\u201d and the Friends theme \u201cI\u2019ll Be There for You\u201d died Tuesday at the age of 72. Willis\u2019 publicist confirmed the songwriter\u2019s death to Rolling Stone, adding that Willis died of cardiac arrest at a Los Angeles-area hospital. Willis\u2019 \u201cpartner and soulmate\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-974180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 04:47:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KFMU Solar Powered Radio","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=974180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/974180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=974180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=974180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=974180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}