"My Promise" is a song by the band

Earth, Wind & Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million re ...

, released as a single in 2013 by

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...

Legacy In law, a legacy is something held and transferred to someone as their inheritance, as by will and testament. Personal effects, family property, marriage property or collective property gained by will of real property. Legacy or legacies may refer ...

. The song reached No. 28 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Adult R&B Songs The Adult R&B Songs chart (formerly called Adult R&B Airplay) is an airplay chart that is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on urban adult contemporary radio stations, whose playl ...

chart and No. 30 on the ''

Adult Contemporary Songs The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...

chart.

Overview

"My Promise" was produced by Walt B. &

Neal Pogue Neal H Pogue is an American producer, audio engineer and mixer originally from Roselle, New Jersey, and based in Los Angeles. Pogue is a multi-time Grammy Award winner, having first won for his engineering and mixing work on Outkast's ''Speake ...

and composed by Austin Jacobs, Darrin Simpson with

Siedah Garrett Deborah Christine "Siedah" Garrett (born June 24, 1960) is an American singer and songwriter who has written songs and performed backing vocals for many recording artists in the music industry, such as Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Brand N ...

. The song came from Earth, Wind & Fire's 2013 album ''

Now, Then & Forever ''Now, Then & Forever'' is the twentieth studio album by American band Earth, Wind & Fire, released on September 10, 2013, by Legacy Recordings/Sony Music. The album reached No. 11 on the US ''Billboard'' 200 and No. 6 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Alb ...

''.

Critical reception

Emerys Baird of

Blues & Soul ''Blues & Soul'' is a British music magazine, established in 1967 by John Abbey. ''The Independent'' has noted ''Blues & Soul'' as being the equal of magazines such as '' NME'' and '' Q''. ''Billboard'' magazine has called ''Blues & Soul'' "a ...

said ""My Promise", the first single taken off this album, churns along sweetly with

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, record producer and composer. The co-founder of Chic, Rodgers has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 500 million albums and 75 million ...

' like guitar - swinging, punchy horns and vocals to die for! (What else would you expect eh?) This is a pop vignette signalling the return of such masters, exemplifying the band's phenomenal control and musicianship to a tee!". Andy Kellman of

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote "My Promise and Guiding Light especially rise high enough to be slotted between classics without losing listener interest." Harry Guerin of

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

exclaimed "It's now nearly 30 years (yikes) since Bailey's voice went higher than the helicopter in the video for

Easy Lover "Easy Lover" is a song performed by Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire and Phil Collins of Genesis, and jointly written and composed by Bailey, Collins, and Nathan East. The song appeared on Bailey's solo album, ''Chinese Wall''. Collins has per ...

with

Phil Collins Philip David Charles Collins (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He was the drummer and lead singer of the rock band Genesis and also has a career as a solo performer. Between 1982 and ...

, but the man sounds as fresh and smooth as back in the day, dishing out the funk, soul and R&B mixed grill on songs like Sign On and The Promise to glorious effect."

Credits

*Arranged By orns– Benjamin Wright *Arranged By orns Synthesizer, Programmed By – Austin Jacobs *Backing Vocals – Daniel McClain, Philip D. Bailey,

*Bass –

Verdine White Verdine Adams White (born July 25, 1951) is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist for the band Earth, Wind & Fire. White was placed at No. 19 on Rolling Stone's list of The 50 Greatest Bassists of All Time. Early l ...

*Drums –

John Paris John Paris is an American drummer, arranger, singer and songwriter. Paris is a member and drummer of the R&B, funk and jazz band Earth, Wind & Fire. Biography Paris appeared on Stephanie Mills' 1987 LP If I Was Your Woman. He later played the ...

*Grand Piano –

Larry Dunn Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

*Guitar – Morris O'Connor *Keyboards, Organ, Piano, Guitar, Programmed By – Darrin Simpson *Lead Vocals – Philip J. Bailey *Percussion – Neal Pogue *Producer – Neal Pogue, Walt B *Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone – Mark Visher *Trombone – Duane Benjamin, Eric Jorgensen, Wendell Kelly *Trumpet – James Ford, Jon Pappenbrook, Matthew Fronke *Written-By – Austin Jacobs, Darrin Simpson, Siedah Garrett

References

{{authority control 2013 songs 2013 singles Earth, Wind & Fire songs