For Sly and the Family Stone, it was always all about that bass.
The funk band, led by the mercurial genius who gave the band its moniker, joined James Brown and Parliament-Funkadelic as pioneering artists who ushered in the fusion of rock, R&B and soul.
Sly Stone – born Sylvester Stewart in Denton, Texas − has died at age 82, his family announced on June 9. But the music he created with the band − a lineup that included brother/guitarist Freddie Stone, sister/keyboardist Rose Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini and bassist Larry Graham − inhabits the music of artists ranging from Diana Ross & The Supremes to Michael Jackson to John Mayer.
Sly and the Family Stone released 10 studio albums between 1967 and 1982, with many songs injected with passionate social consciousness and others existing as blissful foot-stompers.
Here are five of the band’s most essential songs:
Sly Stone dies: The funk pioneer who led Sly and the Family Stone was 82
‘Everyday People’ (1968)
The first No. 1 hit for the unit is also one of the most enduring in music history. A call for peace and equality is blanketed with a pop sheen including a singsong chorus (“There is a blue one who can’t accept the green one for living with the black one trying to be a skinny one”) and a bridge including the phrase, “different strokes for different folks,” which was the inspiration behind the ’70s sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes.” The song’s covers include a memorable rendition by Joan Jett as well as Cher and Future, who recorded it for a 2017 Gap commercial.
‘Stand!’ (1969)
Sly Stone wrote this minor, yet important, hit solo and also primarily used studio musicians to record it. Stone’s message was simple, to stand “for the things you know are right,” his words emphasized by a gospel choir. “It’s the truth that the truth makes them so uptight. … Don’t you know that you are free, at least in your mind if you want to be,” he sings in a gravelly tone before a mid-song detour into a think stew of gospel and funk. The B-side of the single – “I Want to Take You Higher” – is equally worthy of hosannas.
‘Hot Fun in the Summertime’ (1969)
Though it was released just before the band’s appearance at Woodstock, the No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 became a symbol of the music festival with its memo about carefree fun in the sun. Tapped piano notes and a gentle pillow of strings provide the song’s backbone, and when the horns kick in along with the group’s soaring background vocals, it’s impossible not to get swept into the groovy vibe.
‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)’ (1969)
Though the spelling of the title would cause much cringing among English teachers, the clever title (which translates to “Thank You for Letting Me Be Myself Again”) is one of many unforgettable elements of the funktastic singalong of individuality that still serves as a call to the dance floor.
A sliding high hat pairs with heavy use of bassist Graham’s legendary “slap technique,” which he would employ throughout the band’s duration and be emulated by Prince, Flea and Chic’s Bernard Edwards, among others.
‘Family Affair’ (1971)
The final No. 1 hit for the band and one of its most emulated, whether through its woozy electric piano (played by Billy Preston) or its syncopated rhythm. Prince and Madonna found ways to interpolate the song into their own recordings (“Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This?” and “Keep It Together,” respectively), but, no, Mary J. Blige’s song and album of the same name is not affiliated with Sly and the Family Stone’s.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sly Stone songs, including Sly and the Family Stone’s Everyday People
