1976 · Behind the Songs
A horn-blast escape plan, recorded while the band was mourning its guiding arranger.
On July 7, 1976, Earth, Wind & Fire released “Getaway” as the first single from Spirit, their seventh studio album on Columbia Records. The song was one of the rare EWF hits written from outside the band’s inner circle: Bernard “Beloyd” Taylor and Peter Cor Belenky supplied the tune, and Maurice White produced it with Charles Stepney. From its first seconds, the record made its intentions clear — this was music built for speed.
A Song Born in a Season of Grief
The Spirit sessions were shadowed by loss. Stepney, the arranger and co-producer who had helped shape the band’s sophisticated sound, died in the middle of the recording; the album was entitled Spirit in his dedication, and White carried most of the arranging and producing himself. Against that heavy backdrop, “Getaway” landed like a burst of kinetic joy. Rolling Stone’s Joe McEwen heard a propulsive funk track full of dizzying changes, and AllMusic’s Ed Hogan later called it a “fantastically frantic jam” that opens with a blast of horns. The brightness of the track feels, in hindsight, like the band choosing motion over mourning.
Chart Journey
“Getaway” moved fast. It climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Songs chart, crossed over to No. 12 on the Hot 100 and No. 12 on the Dance chart, and earned an RIAA Gold certification. Even its B-side did its part: an instrumental version of the song gave club DJs a way to keep the floor moving without the vocals.
A Second Life
Long after 1976, “Getaway” kept traveling. Boards of Canada sampled it on “Sixtyten” from Music Has the Right to Children, and a remixed version turned up on the Gran Turismo 4 soundtrack — proof that a frantic horn jam could outrun its era and find new drivers in new decades.