Allee Willis — genius behind "Friends" theme song, finally gets her incredible story told

Allee Willis may be the most influential artist you've never heard of. A new documentary, The World According to Allee Willis, reveals a renaissance woman who blazed trails across music, art, and technology while fighting personal battles behind her flamboyant exterior.

Willis wrote the "Friends" theme song and Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" and "Boogie Wonderland," as well as "Neutron Dance" and the Broadway musical "The Color Purple." Her songs sold over 60 million records. In 2019, "September" was inducted into the Library of Congress National Recording Registry for Historically and Culturally Significant Recordings. She was also a Grammy winner for the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018.

In 1997, she was the first artist to address the U.S. House of Representatives about artists' rights in cyberspace. She developed an early social network with Mark Cuban, was the production designer on videos for musicians like The Cars and Debbie Harry, a visual artist who specialized in painting and kinetic sculpture, and a legendary party host whose pink Art Deco Los Angeles home was a real-life Pee-wee's Playhouse, filled with incredible kitsch collectibles. (She was a close friend and creative colleague of Paul Reubens, creator of Pee-wee Herman.)

With an asymmetric haircut and whimsical, almost clownlike outfits, Willis was publicly exuberant but struggled privately. Her father was cold and didn't understand her rejection of femininity and love of Black music. Growing up in Detroit, she would often sit on the lawn of Motown's recording studio and listen to the artists making their songs. She was understandably reluctant to come out as a lesbian in an era where such a revelation could kill a career. And despite her success writing for major artists, Willis hit the misogynist glass ceiling when she tried to break into the music production boys' club.

The documentary includes a lot of Willis's own extensive film and video archives dating back to 1950s Detroit. Willis documented nearly everything, leaving behind terabytes of footage and archives — from classified ads to napkin-scrawled lyrics. These archives allowed director Alexis Spraic to fulfill one of Willis's final wishes — found in her diary — for her "final art piece to be someone putting together the trail I left behind."

As I was watching this, I realized that Willis was a genius who broke new ground with everything she touched.

Below are some photos of Willis along with some photos I snapped of Willis's house, which has been preserved by the Willis Wonderland Foundation ever since she passed away on Christmas Eve 2019. She was 72.

Allee Willis and Paul Reubens at the Grammy Awards, from THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ALLEE WILLIS, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of the Estate of Allee Willis and Magnolia Pictures.

Allee Willis in her home recording studio, from THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ALLEE WILLIS, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Maryanne Bilham. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

Allee Willis' 1937 Streamline Moderne house designed by architect William Kesling, built as a movie studio party house (Mark Frauenfelder)

Allee Willis's office (Mark Frauenfelder)

Rocketship gumball machine in Allee Willis's basement den (Mark Frauenfelder)

Allee Willis's in-home recording studio (Mark Frauenfelder)

Allee Willis's famous bowling ball garden (Mark Frauenfelder)

Previously:
• Rest in Power, Allee Willis — Queen of Kitsch
• More than 5,000 Detroiters sing Allee Willis' love song to the city
• Help build kitsch queen Allee Willis's creative legacy by bidding on a vintage ashtray (with wacky-fun artifacts) from her estate
• Ba-de-ya, the 21st of September will always be special to songwriter Allee Willis
• Field trip to Willis Wonderland included in UCLA's summer kitsch & camp course
• Best schwag ever: Allee Willis Cut-Out Paper Doll Book
• Ba-de-ya, why Earth, Wind & Fire's 'September' nonsense lyric stayed in the song