Nach dem Ende der Animals, auf dem Weg in die Vergessenheit, gründete Eric Burdon gemeinsam mit Lee Oskar die Band Eric Burdon & WAR. Spill the Wine (1970) war der erste Billboard Hot 100 Hit der Band und erschien auf dem legendären Album Eric Burdon declares „War“.
Harold Brown, damaliger Schlagzeuger, zur Entstehung des Songs:
„Steve wanted first to see what we could do. So for about a year we just kept going in and out of studios. And then one day we were up in San Francisco, just playing and stuff. Lonnie (Jordan, War keyboard player) came in acting all drunk and stuff and out. They had a bottle of wine, and some of that wine got spilled in the console. Lee (Oskar, War harmonica player) says he felt that the song didn’t have anything to do with the wine going into the console, but all I know is after that they moved out of the A studio, they moved us into the B studio, and then we were playing a Latin thing, and even if Eric had been writing ‚Spill The Wine‘ all along, and writing the concepts, that’s when it all came together. I think that Eric was already working on an idea about leaking gnomes waking up in a grassy field, and then when the wine inadvertently got knocked over, whether it was part of the song or not, it all just came together right at that moment.“ (Quelle: songfacts.com)
Cover-Version des Stücks von den „Isley Brothers“ aus dem Jahr 1971.