Wade in the Water

Recorded live in 1966, the track featured the Ramsey Lewis Trio — with Cleveland Eaton on bass and Maurice White on drums — capturing Lewis's gospel-inflected piano approach to the traditional spiritual in a performance setting that became a commercial breakthrough. Released on Cadet Records in 1966, 'Wade in the Water' reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100 and crossed over from the jazz market to mainstream pop and R&B audiences, consolidating Lewis's commercial momentum following his 1965 hit 'The In Crowd'. The recording introduced the traditional spiritual to a mass popular audience through a jazz-funk lens and remains Lewis's second-best-known hit, while drummer Maurice White went on to form Earth, Wind and Fire, making this session historically significant for that lineage as well.