Sly & The Family Stone – Greatest Hits
(Epic Records SEPC32039)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing
Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)
Sleeve in Nr MINT- condition
– some slight war to edges/corners
Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco. Active from 1967 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Headed by singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and containing several of his family members and friends, the band was the first major American rock band to have an “integrated, multi-gender” lineup.
Brothers Sly Stone and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone combined their bands (Sly & the Stoners and Freddie & the Stone Souls) in 1967. Sly and Freddie Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Gregg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham completed the original lineup; Sly and Freddie’s sister, singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, joined within a year. This collective recorded five Billboard Hot 100 hits which reached the top 10, and four ground-breaking albums, which greatly influenced the sound of American pop music, soul, R&B, funk, and hip hop music. In the preface of his 1998 book For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History, Joel Selvin sums up the importance of Sly and the Family Stone’s influence on African American music by stating “there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone”. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
During the early 1970s, the band switched to a grittier funk sound, which was as influential on the music industry as their earlier work. The band began to fall apart during this period because of drug abuse and ego clashes; consequently, the fortunes and reliability of the band deteriorated, leading to its dissolution in 1975. Sly Stone continued to record albums and tour with a new rotating lineup under the “Sly and the Family Stone” name from 1975 to 1983. In 1987, Sly Stone was arrested and sentenced for cocaine use, after which he went into effective retirement.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the American group Sly and the Family Stone. It was first released on November 21, 1970, by Epic Records. The album includes all of the singles from the albums Dance to the Music (1968), Life (1968), and Stand! (1969).
Track listing
All songs written by Sylvester Stewart, and produced and arranged by Sly Stone (Sylvester Stewart) for Stone Flower Productions. Superscripts denote original album sources, referenced below.
- Side one
- “I Want to Take You Higher” – 5:22 c
- “Everybody Is a Star” – 3:00
- “Stand!” – 3:08 c
- “Life” – 2:58 b
- “Fun” – 2:20 b
- “You Can Make It If You Try” – 3:39 c
- Side two
- “Dance to the Music” – 2:58 a
- “Everyday People” – 2:20 c
- “Hot Fun in the Summertime” – 2:37
- “M’Lady” – 2:44 b
- “Sing a Simple Song” – 3:55 c
- “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” – 4:50
- Notes
- a from Dance to the Music (1968)
- b from Life (1968)
- c from Stand! (1969)
- “Everybody is a Star”, “Hot Fun in the Summertime” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” make their first album appearance.
Personnel
- Sly and the Family Stone
- Sly Stone – vocals, organ, guitar, piano, harmonica, and more
- Freddie Stone – vocals, guitar
- Larry Graham – vocals, bass guitar
- Rose Stone – vocals, piano, keyboards
- Cynthia Robinson – trumpet, vocal ad-libs
- Jerry Martini – saxophone
- Greg Errico – drums
- Little Sister (Vet Stone, Mary McCreary, Elva Mouton) – background vocals
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