"Spill the Wine" is a 1970 song performed by Eric Burdon and the bandWar. It was released as a single in May 1970, backed by the non-album track "Magic Mountain", and was War's first chart hit. It is also the only hit Eric Burdon & War had.
Song description and history
"Spill the Wine" first appeared on the albumEric Burdon Declares War and runs 4:51. Its writing credits include the members of War: Papa Dee Allen, Harold Brown, Eric Burdon, B.B. Dickerson, Lonnie Jordan, Charles Miller, Lee Oskar, and Howard E. Scott. The song was inspired by an accident in which keyboardist Lonnie Jordan spilled wine on a mixing board. It features a prevalent flute solo, and the sound of a woman speaking Spanish—a friend of Eric Burdon's—is heard in the background. An edited version, released as a promo single for radio stations and subsequently included on most compilations, omits the middle spoken recitation, plus one chorus. The song was re-released as a single in 1996, after remixing by Junior Vasquez.
Chart history
"Spill the Wine" was War's first and only hit with Eric Burdon. It peaked at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard ranked the single the number 20 song of 1970. It was also a top 3 hit in Canada and Australia in mid-November 1970.
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
Use in media
Films
"Spill the Wine" has been used in the sound tracks of the following motion pictures:
Boogie Nights
Remember the Titans
Television
The song was used in the sound tracks of the following television episodes:
In 2004, flautist Alexander Zonjic performed a cover of "Spill the Wine" for his album Seldom Blues. San Francisco band Vinyl covered "Spill the Wine" on their album Frogshack Music Volume II in 2009, in a track featuring Sugar Pie DeSlanto and Marcus Scott. The revival of the 1970s band The L.A. Carpool covered "Spill the Wine" with a Latin salsa flair in 2012, in a track that featured well-known Latin drummer Richie "Gajate" Garcia and other well-known Latin musicians. On October 31, 2013, jam band Widespread Panic covered the song, opening the second set of their show at UNO arena in New Orleans, and again at Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia on New Year's Eve of 2013. On February 23, 2014, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band opened their concert at the Hope Estate Winery in the Hunter Valley of NSW, Australia, with a nine-minute version of the song, the world premiere of their version. In 2019, the song was released by Michael Hutchence as the lead single from the compilation album .
Miscellaneous
In a 2008 interview, Lonnie Jordan referred to Eric Burdon as the first Latin rapper in pop music.
