Larry Graham Jr. is an American bassist and baritone singer,with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. In 1980,he released the single "One in a Million You",which reached the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100. He is credited with the invention of the slapping technique on the electric bass guitar,which radically expanded the tonal palette of the bass,although he himself refers to the technique as "thumpin' and pluckin'".
The Isley Brothers are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati,Ohio,that began as a vocal trio consisting of the brothers O'Kelly Isley Jr.,Rudolph Isley and Ronald Isley in the 1950s. With a career spanning over seven decades,the group has enjoyed one of the "longest,most influential,and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music".
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".
Earth,Wind &Fire is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz,R&B,soul,funk,disco,pop,Latin,and Afro-pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time,with sales of over 90 million records worldwide.
"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.
Stand! is the fourth album by soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone,released in April 1969. Written and produced by lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone,Stand! is considered an artistic high-point of the band's career. Released by Epic Records,just before the group's celebrated performance at the Woodstock festival,it became the band's most commercially successful album to date. It includes several well-known songs,among them hit singles,such as "Sing a Simple Song","I Want to Take You Higher","Stand!",and "Everyday People". The album was reissued in 1990 on compact disc and vinyl,and again in 2007 as a remastered numbered edition digipack CD with bonus tracks and,in the UK,as only a CD with bonus tracks.
"In the Midnight Hour" is a song originally performed by Wilson Pickett in 1965 and released on his 1965 album of the same name,also appearing on the 1966 album The Exciting Wilson Pickett. The song was composed by Pickett and Steve Cropper at the historic Lorraine Motel in Memphis,later the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Pickett's first hit on Atlantic Records,it reached number one on the R&B charts and peaked at number 21 on the pop charts.
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).
Rose Stone is an American singer and keyboardist. She is best known as one of the lead singers in Sly and the Family Stone,a popular psychedelic soul/funk band founded by her brothers,Sly Stone and Freddie 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.
"I Want to Take You Higher" is a song by the soul/rock/funk band Sly and the Family Stone,the B-side to their Top 30 hit "Stand!". Unlike most of the other tracks on the Stand! album,"I Want to Take You Higher" is not a message song;instead,it is simply dedicated to music and the feeling one gets from music. Like nearly all of Sly &the Family Stone's songs,Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart was credited as the sole songwriter.
"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.
"People Get Ready" is a 1965 single by The Impressions,and the title track from the People Get Ready album. The single is the group's best-known hit,reaching number three on the Billboard R&B chart and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The gospel-influenced track was a Curtis Mayfield composition that displayed the growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing.
Mavis Staples is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers,of which she is the last surviving member. During her time in the group,she recorded the hit singles "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again". In 1969,Staples released her self-titled debut solo album.
"I've Been Loving You Too Long" (originally "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)") is a soul music ballad written by Otis Redding and Jerry Butler. Considered by music critics and writers to be one of Redding's finest performances and a soul classic,it is a slow,emotional piece with Redding's pleading vocals backed by producer Steve Cropper's arpeggiated guitar parts and a horn section.
"Piece of My Heart" is a romantic soul song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns,originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. Franklin's single peaked in December 1967 at number 10 on the Billboard Hot Rhythm &Blues Singles chart in the United States.
"Chain of Fools" is a song written by Don Covay. Aretha Franklin first released the song as a single in 1967 and subsequently it appeared on many of her albums. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot Rhythm &Blues chart and number two on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. In the lyrics,the singer has been with her boyfriend for five years but realizes she's one of his "chain of fools," women with whom he's been cheating. Others tell her to leave him,but she says his love is too strong and she's too weak. Yet someday,she predicts the chain will break.
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.
