CoronaVinyl Day 218 (E): Open Our Eyes by Earth, Wind & Fire

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "E," and the remaining pickins are slim, so even though I've already done an Earth, Wind & Fire album for CoronaVinyl, I'm doing another one.  This time it's their fifth studio album, 1974's Open Our Eyes.

Between work and shoveling snow today -- and the desire to sleep -- I don't have much time, but Open Our Eyes is exactly what you'd expect from Earth, Wind & Fire.  It's a combination of funk, soul, and jazz, with lots of great percussion and some extended jams.

The album was the band's first to break into the Top 20 of the Billboard album chart, reaching #15.  It was also their first #1 on the Billboard R&B album chart.  Open Our Eyes also featured the band's first two Top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 -- "Mighty Mighty" (#29) and "Devotion" (#33) -- and their first two Top 10 songs on the Billboard R&B singles chart -- "Mighty Mighty" (#4) and "Kalimba Story" (#6).  The album eventually went platinum in the U.S.

This album set the stage for the band's success in the '70s and early '80s, as after this, the band's next six studio albums that reached the Top 10 on the Billboard album chart (including one #1), and their next nine studio albums reached the Top 10 of the Billboard R&B album chart (including four #1s)

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Kalimba Story"

The last track on the first side is one of the funkier songs on the album.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Drum Song"
The second side kicks off with an instrumental track, and as the title implies, it's all about the drums.  It's kind of a jazzy, Latin-tinged song, reminiscent of something that might be on an early Santana record.