That's the Way of the World (film)

That's the Way of the World is a 1975 film produced and directed by Sig Shore and starring Harvey Keitel. It features the music of R&B/Funk group Earth, Wind & Fire (who also appear in the picture as a fictionalized version of themselves). The film depicts the music business and the life of record executives. A soundtrack by Earth, Wind & Fire released in the same year eventually became one of the group's landmark albums.

That's the Way of the World
original 1975 theatrical poster
Directed by	Sig Shore
Produced by	Sig Shore
Written by	Robert Lipsyte (story and screenplay)
Starring	Harvey Keitel Ed Nelson Earth, Wind & Fire
Music by	Maurice White
Cinematography	Alan Metzger
Edited by	Bruce Witkin
Production company	Sig Shore Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	June 1975 (1975-06)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Coleman Buckmaster (Harvey Keitel) also known as "the Golden Ear" is a producer extraordinaire for A-Chord Records. In the midst of working slavishly to complete the debut album of "the Group" (Earth, Wind & Fire), Buckmaster is forced to put their project on the back-burner in favor of a new signing to A-Chord, "the Pages," Velour (Cynthia Bostick), Gary (Jimmy Boyd) and Franklin (Bert Parks). According to label head Carlton James (Ed Nelson), the Pages represent good, old-fashioned, wholesome family values. According to Buckmaster, they represent everything wrong with the music business: a soulless pastiche of cheese-on-white-bread, and he wants nothing to do with them. However, due to his contract, he is forced to turn the flat song of their demo, "Joy, Joy, Joy" into a workable hit. In the meantime, he ends up in a relationship with Velour, seemingly also against his will, but he is able to use the relationship to his and the Group's advantage.