THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

589-Sly and the Family Stone-Dance to the Music.

1967-Number 7 single.

Best Bit-At 1.30. The respected American music critic Joel Selvin said,’There are two types of black music, Black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone.’

Sly and the Family Stone were formed in San Francisco, California, United States, in 1966, and remained active until 1983. The classic line up consisted of Sly Stone, (multi instrumentalist) his brother Freddie Stone, (guitar) their sister Rose Stone, (keyboards) Cynthia Robinson, (1944-2015) (trumpet) Jerry Martini, (saxophone) Larry Graham, (bass) and Greg Errico, (drums) in total there were 19 different members come and go. Sly and the Family Stone were the first successful American Rock group to have a racially integrated male and female line up. They are considered to be one of the most influential groups in the development of American ‘Pop’ music due to their experimentation. They were pioneers of the music genre ‘Psychedelic Soul,’ which was a major influence on ‘Funk.’ ‘Soul,’ ‘R&B,’ and ‘Hip-Hop,’ and also an influence on the ‘Motown’ records, writer, and producer Norman Whitfield, (1940-2008) (see also best songs 911-777-569-533-480-346 and 233) who transformed his style from the Motown ‘sound,’ to experimenting with ‘Psychedelic Soul,’ most notably with The Temptations.

The discography of Sly and the Family Stone includes 10 studio Albums released between 1967-1982, and 19 singles released between 1967-1983, there are also six official compilation Albums, and two live Albums available. In America their fifth studio Album ‘There’s a Riot Goin’ On,’ from 1971, is their most successful, reaching Number 1 on Billboard, it is also their only charting Album in the UK, where it peaked at Number 31. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, they have had 10 top 40 hits, with ‘Everyday People,’ (1968) ‘Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin’) /’Everybody Is a Star,’ (1969) and ‘Family Affair,’ (1971) all reaching the Number 1 position, with ‘Dance to the Music’ reaching Number 8, while in the UK, five of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Dance to the Music,’ peaking the highest at Number 7.

‘Dance to the Music’ was the only single issued from Sly and the Family Stone’s second studio Album of the same name, from April 1968, and was written and produced by Sly Stone, who was born Sylvester Stewart on March 15th, 1943, in Denton, Texas, United States. He acquired the nickname ‘Sly’ while still at school, when a classmate misspelled his name ‘Slyvester.’ The name ‘Stone’ was adopted by the family members as their stage name. It is Sly Stone who is singled out for playing a critical role in the development of ‘Funk,’ with his pioneering fusion of ‘Soul,’ ‘Rock,’ ‘Psychedelia,’ and ‘Gospel,’ in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The American online music database ‘AllMusic’ wrote, ‘James Brown (1933-2006) (see also best songs 880-612-340-143 and 88) may have invented ‘Funk,’ but Sly Stone perfected it,’ they also credited him with ‘Creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds.’ The pressures of success took it’s toll on Sly Stone, and he turned to drugs, which by the mid 1970’s had taken him over. His drug use and erratic behaviour effectively ended the group, but in due course, Stone would eventually go on to work with others, including George Clinton in 1981 and his group ‘Funkadelic.’ Sly Stone has also released two solo Albums, in 1975, and 2011, and 13 singles between 1961-2023.

After the critical success of Sly and the Family Stone’s debut Album ‘A Whole New Thing,’ in 1967, Clive Davis (see also best songs 870) who was the executive of ‘CBS Records’ at that time, insisted that the band record a more commercial sounding song in order to gain more radio play, and to get them in to the charts, which was something the band had no real interest in wanting to do, preferring their more experimental approach. A compromise was reached, but not everyone was happy, Jerry Martini dismissed the song as,’Glorified Motown beats,’ saying the song was an ‘Unhip’ thing for them to do.’ Martini also said that Sly Stone only did the song to satisfy the CBS executives desire for a hit, stating, ‘Sly hated it.’

‘You might like to hear my organ, I said ride Sally ride. If I could hear the horns blow, Cynthia on the throne, yeah! Cynthia and Jerry got a message that’s sayin’, all the squares, go home!’