"Heritage" | ||||
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Single by Earth, Wind & Fire featuring The Boys | ||||
from the album Heritage | ||||
B-side | "Gotta Find Out" | |||
Released | February 1990 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:05 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Songwriter(s) |
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Producer(s) | Maurice White | |||
Earth, Wind & Fire singles chronology | ||||
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The Boys singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Heritage" on YouTube |
"Heritage" is a song by American band Earth, Wind & Fire featuring Suns of Light (as the Boys), released in February 1990 by Columbia Records [1] as the first single from their fifteenth studio album. The single reached No. 5 on the US Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart, No. 5 on the Cash Box Top R&B Singles chart, No. 4 on the Japanese Pop Singles ( Oricon) chart and No. 23 on the Finland Suomen virallinen singlelista. [2] [3] [4] [5]
"Heritage" was produced by Maurice White and written by White, Lestley Pierce and Frankie Blue. With a duration of four minutes and five seconds the song has a prestissimo tempo of 207 beats per minute. [1] [6]
The single's B-side was a song called "Gotta Find Out". Both "Heritage" and "Gotta Find Out" came upon EWF's 1990 studio album Heritage. [1]
A music video was also issued in 1990 to accompany the single. [7]
May Mitchell of The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that "guest appearances are made by the Boys who lend a nice choral touch to the funky title track". [8] Billboard called "Heritage" "a solid funky jam strong on complex harmonies and prideful lyrics" with "youthful zest". [9] Peter Kinghorn of the Newcastle Chronicle found a "Throbbing dance beat with the Boys helping out on harmonies." [10] John Milward of Rolling Stone declared that the "prideful title tune even throws in the kind of admonition — “This is a party, y’all,” courtesy of the Boys — favored by Earth, Wind and Fire's more radical old rivals in Parliament-Funkadelic". [11] Pablo Guzman of the New York Daily News also exclaimed that EWF "jumps into radioactive with Takin' Chances and Heritage, the latter featuring the Boys. The union is a kicking one". [12] James T. Jones IV of USA Today found that "EWF smartly gets help from..The Boys on the muscular title track, a song of racial pride." [13]
Chart (1990) | Peak position |
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Japanese Pop Singles ( Oricon) [5] | 4 |
Finland ( Suomen virallinen singlelista) [2] | 23 |
US Hot R&B Singles ( Billboard) [3] | 5 |
US Top R&B Singles ( Cash Box) | 5 |