WAR, one of music’s defining and most enduring soul/funk groups, was founded in Long Beach, California, in 1962. In 1970, producer Jerry Goldstein united the seven-piece band with former Animals lead singer Eric Burdon; the alliance produced the No. 1 worldwide hit “Spill the Wine.” Stepping out on their own in 1971, they launched a fruitful career with a dynamic sound that fused R&B, rock, Latin music, jazz, and blues. In 1973, their smash album The World is a Ghetto vaulted to No. 1 on Billboard’s pop and R&B charts behind the crossover success of two top-10 singles, the album’s socially conscious title song and its rollicking follow-up “The Cisco Kid.”