File photo: Allee Willis arrives during the 49th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards gala at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on Thursday, June 14, 2018, in New York.
Allee Willis, the eclectic and gleefully offbeat Grammy-winning songwriter behind Earth, Wind & Fire's "September," the theme for the sitcom "Friends," and the score for the Broadway production of "The Color Purple," died on Tuesday, according to her partner. She was 72.
Prudence Fenton, an animator and producer who has been described as Willis' long-term partner, announced the news in an Instagram post. "Rest in Boogie Wonderland," Fenton wrote in the caption to a photo of Willis standing in front of the famed Motown Museum in Detroit.
Willis, who dressed in candy-colored retro outfits and threw outlandish parties at her tastefully tacky home in Los Angeles, is best known for her collaborations with the band Earth, Wind & Fire, co-writing hits including the R&B earworm "September" and "Boogie Wonderland."
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