ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — "Do you remember the 21st night of September?"
Is the song stuck in your head yet?
Earth, Wind & Fire's iconic and enduring song "September" gets played all year round and has permeated pop culture. But it perhaps gets its most plays and airtime on Sept. 21 each year.
Here are a few things you should know about the catchy tune.
It actually wasn't released in September. According to the Wall Street Journal, "September" was released as a single in November 1978. It reached No. 8 on Billboard's pop chart and No. 1 on its R&B chart.
In a 2008 interview, the Alloa Advertiser says songwriter Allee Willis explained how the group came up with the specific date. "We went through all the dates: 'Do you remember the first, the second, the third, the fourth ... ' and the one that just felt the best was the 21st," she said.
Aside from that, however, there appears to be no specific significance to that date. At least not one the songwriter or group has admitted to.
Willis is responsible for writing the lyrics of another iconic song in pop culture — the "Friends" theme "I'll Be There for You," the WSJ said.
Willis confessed in a 2014 interview with NPR one phrase in the song "September" bugged her.
"The, kind of, go-to phrase that Maurice [White] used in every song he wrote was 'ba-dee-ya,'" she told NPR. "So right from the beginning he was singing, 'Ba-dee-ya, say, do you remember / Ba-dee-ya, dancing in September.' And I said, 'We are going to change 'ba-dee-ya' to real words, right?'"
Well, no. Those "nonsense" words/sounds stayed and have been belted aloud by millions.