When this song first came out, I fell in love with it. For a pre-teen, there was so much mysticism and outright coolness to how Eric Burdon wove his tale. Enhancing the experiences with the jazz flute, the woman speaking Spanish, and the rest of War, a spell was woven. The rawness of the chorus as the song built up into a frenzy was something unique on the radio. Even today I love singing along with it.

Wikipedia says:
“Spill the Wine” is a 1970 song performed by Eric Burdon and the band War. It was released as a single in May 1970, backed by the non-album track “Magic Mountain“, and was War’s first chart hit.

“Spill the Wine” first appeared on the album Eric 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. The song was re-released as a single in 1996, after remixing by Junior Vasquez.

“Spill the Wine” has been used in the sound tracks of the following motion pictures:
–Boogie Nights (1997)
–Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (1999)
–Remember the Titans (2000)

The song was used in the sound tracks of the following television episodes:
–The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, episode “That’s No Lady, That’s My Cousin”
—Dexter, episode “A Horse of a Different Color” (while characters Joey Quinn and Angel Batista are smoking marijuana.)
—Shameless, episode “Requiem for a Slut”

Here’s the studio version that gets airplay:

I was once out strolling
One very hot summer’s day
When I thought I’d lay myself down to rest
In a big field of tall grass
I lay there in the sun
And felt it caressing my face
As I fell asleep and dreamed

I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie
And that I was the star of the movie
This really blew my mind
The fact that me, an overfed long-haired, leaping gnome
Should be the star of a Hollywood movie

But there I was
I was taken to a place
The Hall of the Mountain King
I stood high up on a mountaintop
Naked to the world
In front of
Every kind of girl
There was long ones, tall ones, short ones, brown ones
Black ones, round ones, big ones
Crazy ones

Out of the middle
Came a lady
She whispered in my ear
Something crazy
She said

Spill the wine, dig that girl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, dig that girl
Spill the wine, take that pearl

I could feel hot flames of fire roaring at my back
As she disappeared
But soon she returned
In her hand was a bottle of wine
In the other, a glass
She poured some of the wine from the bottle into the glass
And raised it to her lips
And just before she drunk it
She said

Take the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Take the wine, take that pearl
Spill the wine, take that pearl
Take that pearl, yeah!
It’s all good
Oh, you got to do it
Spill that wine, spill that wine

Spill the wine, spill the wine, spill the wine, spill the wine, spill the wine
Take that pearl
Songwriters: Charles Miller / Harold Brown / Howard Scott / LeRoy Jordan / Morris Dickerson / Thomas Allen / Lee Levitin