Gratitude is a double live album by American band Earth, Wind & Fire, issued in November 1975 by Columbia Records. The album spent six weeks atop the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart and three weeks atop the Billboard 200 chart. Gratitude has also been certified Triple Platinum in the US by the RIAA.
Overview
Co-produced by Maurice White and Charles Stepney, Gratitude consists mostly of live tracks together with some newly recorded songs. A 1999 reissue features two interludes together with a live medley of "Serpentine Fire", "Saturday Nite", "Can't Hide Love", and "Reasons". This medley was recorded on February 11, 1978, via CBS, at Natalie Cole's live TV variety special. Another single, "Can't Hide Love", got to No. 11 on the Billboard Hot Soul Songs chart. "Can't Hide Love" was also nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Arrangement For Voices.
| rev2 = Village Voice
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| rev3 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide
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| rev4 = Spin
| rev4score = (favorable)
| rev5 = NME
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| rev6 = DownBeat
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| rev7 = New York Times
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| rev8 = Uncut
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| rev9 = Chicago Tribune
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| rev10 = Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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Within a 4/5 stars review Kit Aiken of Uncut called Gratitude "a kicking live album". Alex Henderson of AllMusic, in a 4.5/5 stars review found "Gratitude brilliantly captures the excitement EWF generated on-stage at its creative peak... one of EWF's finest accomplishments."
Accolades
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Publication
! Country
! Accolade
! Year
! style="text-align:center;"| Rank
|-
| Various writers
| rowspan="4"| United States
| Albums: 50 Years of Great Recordings
|
| style="text-align:center;"| *
|-
| Rickey Vincent
| Five Star Albums from "Funk: The Music, The People, and The Rhythm of The One"
|
| style="text-align:center;"| *
|-
| National Association of Recording Merchandisers and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
| The Definitive 200
| 2007
| style="text-align:center;"| 141
|-
| New Book of Rock Lists
| The 50 Best Number One Albums (1955–93)
| 1994
| style="text-align:center;"| *
|-
| colspan="5" style="text-align:center; font-size:10pt;"|* denotes an unranked list
|}
Track listing
Original release
Note
- "Live Bonus Medley" recorded live on February 11, 1978, at Hollywood Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, California for a 1978 TV Variety Special starring Natalie Cole.
Personnel
Musicians
- Philip Bailey – vocals, congas, percussion
- Larry Dunn – organ, piano, Moog synthesizer
- Johnny Graham – guitar
- Michael Harris – trumpet
- Ralph Johnson – drums, percussion
- Perry Jones – talking voice on track 1
- Al McKay – guitar, percussion
- Don Myrick – saxophone
- Louis Satterfield – trombone
- Fred White – drums, percussion
- Maurice White – vocals, drums, timbales, kalimba, percussion
- Verdine White – vocals, bass guitar, percussion
- Andrew Woolfolk – percussion, saxophone
| 37
|-
! scope="row"| Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 58
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 1
|-
! scope="row"| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)
| 1
|}
Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|-
! scope="col"| Chart (1976)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 10
|-
! scope="row"| US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)
| 2
|}
Singles
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Single
!Chart
!Position
|-
|rowspan="5"|1976
|rowspan="2"|"Can't Hide Love"
|Black Singles
|align="center"|11
|-
|Pop Singles
|align="center"|39
|-
|"Sing a Song/Gratitude"
|Club Play Singles
|align="center"|1
|-
|rowspan="2"|"Sing a Song"
|Black Singles
|align="center"|1
|-
|Pop Singles
|align="center"|5
|}
Certifications
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
!Country
!Award
|-
|US (RIAA)
|Triple Platinum