Verdine White stepped out on his own to honor his late brother and fellow founder of Earth, Wind & Fire, Maurice White, who would have celebrated his 83rd birthday Thursday.
“Superman,” featuring Honey Cone‘s Shelly Clark White, Kathy Merrick and Wendy Smith-Bruné on backing vocals, finds Verdine expressing his thoughts about Maurice on the chorus. “More than any other/ He would always understand/ He called me his little brother/ I called him Superman,” he sings on the song, accompanied by a video that features pictures of Maurice.
“Superman” marks the first time Verdine, known as EWF’s bassist, has sung solo. “Would you believe this is my first time,” he tells Billboard. “I was nervous, but it turned out beautifully. Now that the pressure is off, I think I’ll do more.”
He says he thinks Maurice would have heard the song, chuckled and said, “Man, I didn’t know you could sing like that.”
“Maurice is the icon,” Verdine adds of his late brother, who he called “a great leader, great big brother, great mentor.”
“He did a magnificent job in putting together Earth, Wind & Fire,” he continues. “We miss him dearly.”
Maurice passed away from Parkinson’s disease in 2016.
“Superman” is now available on all platforms through Distrokid.
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