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Greatest Hits | ||||
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Greatest hits album by | ||||
Released | November 21, 1970 | |||
Recorded | 1967–69 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 39:56 | |||
Label | Epic | |||
Producer | Sly Stone | |||
Sly and the Family Stone chronology | ||||
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Singles from Greatest Hits | ||||
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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. [1] The album includes all of the singles from the albums Dance to the Music (1968), Life (1968), and Stand! (1969).
Three tracks released on singles in 1969 appear on album for the first time here: "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Everybody Is a Star", and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)".
The recordings on this compilation are not the same as the single versions in all cases; some songs appear here in their album lengths and mixes. Mixes sometimes have different editing and changes in vocals and or instrumentation.
Greatest Hits was certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having shipped five million copies in the United States. [1] In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album number 60 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, [2] 61 in a 2012 revised list, and number 343 in the 2020 rankings. [3] [4]
The album was released in the midst of an eighteen-month stretch from late 1969 to late 1971, during which Sly & the Family Stone released no new material, Greatest Hits was designed by Epic Records to appease consumer demand and keep the band's name and music in the public's eye. Greatest Hits peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200, and was the band's most successful album.
Prior to the release of this album in November 1970 the musicians were not able to make stereo mixes of "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Everybody is a Star" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)". Epic "re-channelled" the mono singles tracks for the stereo LP, using technology similar to the Duophonic sound process.
The entire album was also remixed in 1971 for release in four channel quadraphonic sound. The quad album appeared in the SQ matrix format on LP and on quad 8-track tape. The SQ system was compatible with conventional stereo playback systems. Until 2007 the rather rare quadraphonic LP was the only source of "true stereo" versions of the three singles tracks.
Early Compact Disc copies in 1987 came from the stereo LP tapes with the re-channeled recordings. Standard stereo mixes of the three singles were finally done when the recordings were digitally remastered in the 1990s. In 2007 the CD was re-issued by Epic/Legacy with all true stereo mixes and improved overall sound quality.
The quadraphonic version was reissued as a hybrid multichannel Super Audio CD by Audio Fidelity in 2015. For this edition only, the mono single mixes were included in place of where the stereo recordings would otherwise be.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [5] |
Christgau's Record Guide | A+ [6] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [7] |
PopMatters | 8/10 [8] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [9] |
Select | 4/5 [10] |
Reviewing for Rolling Stone in December 1970, Jon Landau said that Sly Stone's style is "so infinite and revolves around so many crucial aspects that it has only come together perfectly on a handful of his singles", the best of which are compiled on Greatest Hits. Although he found occasionally "trite" music and lyrics, Landau felt that most of the songs "alone stand as a tribute to one of the most original and creative rock musicians." [11] In the March 1971 edition of Ebony , Phyl Garland hailed it as among the best recent "best of" LPs and "a true bonanza" of psychedelic soul, recommended especially for fans of the genre. [12] In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said that, although he has "doubts" about the band's studio albums, Greatest Hits is "among the greatest rock and roll LPs of all time", adding that Stone's political songs are "uplifting but never simplistic or sentimental". He also asserted that the music's flashy stereo separations, vocal sounds, and register alterations made Greatest Hits "the toughest commercial experiments in rock and roll history". [6]
Reviewing the 1987 CD reissue in his Rock n Roll on Compact Disc guide, journalist David Prakel applauded the distinctive fusion Sly and the Family Stone had created in mixing "brassy funk and psychedelic heavy rock against a back beat", or "black soul and white rock" with "danceability". However, he was ambivalent about the remastering while observing "a dated boxy characteristic and compression in many of these tracks". [13] Bill Shapiro was more enthusiastic in The CD Rock & Roll Library: 30 Years of Rock & Roll on Compact Disc, finding the sound "bright, crisp, clean, clear, detailed and dynamic" overall. Of Greatest Hits in general, he called it "one of the best compilation rock/pop/funk recordings ever" and "chock full of brilliant, influential, and too-often-overlooked pop greatness" that will make listeners "dance and smile". [14] In his review of the 2007 reissue, Andrew Gilstrap from PopMatters said that, although it is not comprehensive, the "slapped-together feel" may be "part of what makes Greatest Hits work so well, as if it was put together with the same freewheeling spirit that characterized the band." [8] AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine deemed it "one of the greatest party records of all time". He went further in claiming that music is "rarely as vivacious, vigorous, and vibrant as this", and that greatest hits albums "don't come better than this – in fact, music rarely does." [5]
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.
Title | Information |
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"Hot Fun in the Summertime" |
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"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"/ "Everybody Is a Star" |
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Name | Chart (1969 - 1970) | Peak position |
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Greatest Hits | U.S. Billboard Pop Albums | 2 |
Greatest Hits | U.S. Top R&B Albums | 1 |
"Hot Fun in the Summertime" | U.S. Billboard Pop Singles | 2 |
"Hot Fun in the Summertime" | U.S. Billboard R&B Singles | 3 |
"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"/ "Everybody Is a Star" | U.S. Billboard Pop Singles | 1 |
"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"/ "Everybody Is a Star" | U.S. Billboard R&B Singles | 1 |
Chart (1971) | Position |
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US Billboard 200 [15] | 9 |
My Generation is the debut studio album by English rock band the Who, released on 3 December 1965 by Brunswick Records in the United Kingdom, and Festival Records in Australia. In the United States, it was released on 25 April 1966 by Decca Records as The Who Sings My Generation, with a different cover and a slightly altered track listing. Besides the members of the Who, being Roger Daltrey (vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar), John Entwistle (bass) and Keith Moon (drums), the album features contributions by session musician Nicky Hopkins (piano).
Sly and the Family Stone was an American band originating from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, they were pivotal in the development of funk, soul, R&B, rock, and psychedelic music. Their core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and included Stone's brother and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone, sister and singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham. The band was the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup.
Sylvester Stewart, better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development of funk with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s. AllMusic stated that "James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone perfected it," and 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." Crawdaddy! has called him "the founder of progressive soul".
Music from Big Pink is the debut studio album by the Band. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. The music was composed partly in "Big Pink", a house shared by bassist/singer Rick Danko, pianist/singer Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, New York. The album itself was recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles in 1968, and followed the band's backing of Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour and time spent together in upstate New York recording material that was officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, also with Dylan. The cover artwork is a painting by Dylan.
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"Everyday People" is a 1968 song composed by Sly Stone and first recorded by his band, Sly and the Family Stone. It was the first single by the band to go to number one on the Soul singles chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. It held that position on the Hot 100 for four weeks, from February 9 to March 8, 1969, and is remembered as one of the most popular songs of the 1960s. Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song of 1969.
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Small Talk is the seventh album by Sly and the Family Stone, released by Epic/CBS Records in 1974. This album was the final LP to feature the original Family Stone, which broke up in January 1975.
This is the discography of the American band Sly and the Family Stone.
"Dance to the Music" is a 1967 hit single by soul/funk/rock band Sly and the Family Stone for the Epic/CBS Records label. It was the first single by the band to reach the Billboard Pop Singles Top 10, peaking at #8 and the first to popularize the band's sound, which would be emulated throughout the black music industry and dubbed "psychedelic soul". It was later ranked #223 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" is a 1969 song recorded by Sly and the Family Stone. The song, released as a double A-side single with "Everybody Is a Star", reached number one on the soul single charts for five weeks, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 19 song of 1970.
"Everybody Is a Star", released in December 1969, is song written by Sylvester Stewart and recorded by Sly and the Family Stone. The song, released as the B-side to the band's 1970 single "Thank You ", reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970 at a time when chart position for both sides of the single were measured equally and not independently. "Star" was intended to be included on an in-progress album with "Thank You" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime"; the LP was never completed, and the three tracks were instead included on the band's 1970 Greatest Hits compilation. The single was the final classic-era Family Stone recording; it would be 23 months until the next release, the single "Family Affair" in late 1971.
"Hot Fun in the Summertime" is a 1969 song recorded by Sly and the Family Stone. The single was released just prior to the band's high-profile performance at Woodstock, which greatly expanded their fanbase. The song peaked at number 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart, kept out of the number 1 spot by "I Can't Get Next to You" by The Temptations. "Hot Fun in the Summertime" also peaked at number 3 on the U.S. Billboard soul singles chart in autumn 1969. It is ranked as the seventh biggest U.S. hit of 1969, and the 65th in Canada.
"Family Affair" is a 1971 number-one hit single recorded by Sly and the Family Stone for the Epic Records label. Their first new material since the double A-sided single "Thank You "/ "Everybody Is a Star" nearly two years prior, "Family Affair" became the third and final number-one pop single for the band. In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song 57th on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The cover version by John Legend, Joss Stone, and Van Hunt, won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at 49th Annual Grammy Awards.
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There's a Riot Goin' On is the fifth studio album by American funk and soul band Sly and the Family Stone. It was recorded from 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California and released later that year on November 1 by Epic Records. The recording was dominated by band frontman/songwriter Sly Stone during a period of escalated drug use and intra-group tension.
I'm Back! Family & Friends is the second solo album by singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, released by Cleopatra Records in 2011. It contains remixes and covers of his old material, along with three new tracks.
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