Singer-Songwriter Alle Willis

Allee Willis, a raconteuse with an asymmetrical hairstyle (long on one side, short on the other, like the life of man), lives in a light-pink house north of Hollywood with a bowling-ball garden and a heaving collection of kitsch. This is the house that “September” bought. It was the first hit for Ms. Willis, 70, who was a co-writer of the Earth, Wind & Fire wedding, bar mitzvah and after-party perennial from 1978. Hundreds more songs followed, some of which are well known and some of which are not.

“I, very thankfully, have a few songs that will not go away,” Ms. Willis said, “but they’re schlepping along 900 others.” She is an untrained musician but an unstoppable musical force. “I hear melodies constantly,” she said. “I always say, ‘If you were to drop dead, I could write to the clunk of the body.’”

From “A Queen of Kitsch Who Made the World Sing,” by Matthew Schneier for the New York Times; Photo by Magdalena Wosinska (@magdawosinskastudio)

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