The Greatest Hits

Performer: Sly & the Family Stone
Producer: Bob Irwin; Sly Stone
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Includes liner notes by Morgan Ames. This album was released in 1970. It was Sly & The Family Stone's fifth album, and the first to feature "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)"/"Everybody Is A Star", which was a #1 single. After James Brown, Sly Stone led the most influential funk band of his generation. Sly & the Family Stone: Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Freddie Stone (guitar); Jerry Martini (saxophone); Cynthia Robinson (trumpet); Rosie Stone (keyboards); Larry Graham (bass guitar); Greg Errico (drums). As anthology albums go, this one is practically an embarrassment of riches, showcasing as it does some of the most innovative music of '60s. Granted, Sly had other hits after this best-of was cobbled together by a record company anxious about his slow progress in the studio, but what's here is, as they say, choice. The impact these songs had on '70s funk (and beyond--just ask Prince) is all but incalculable, but Sly's musical vision was far more all encompassing than that might suggest. A song like "Everyday People" could be danceable, magisterially beautiful, and lyrically uplifting all at the same time (and, it should be added, eternally fresh-sounding).

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.112) - Ranked #60 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "Sly and the Family Stone created a musical utopia..." Rolling Stone (12/24/70, pp.50-1) - "...[Sly'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 it is all present and accounted for on his GREATEST HITS album..."

Sylvester Stewart, known to the world as Sly Stone, had a musical vision that coalesced quickly in the late 1960s and sadly disintegrated after half a decade. As the leader of Sly & the Family Stone, he and his combination hippie commune/soul revue melded funk with psychedelia in a revolutionary manner. Sly's lyrical themes shifted from peace and love to scathing social commentaries that made for some of the strongest political statements of the era. Unfortunately, by the turn of the decade he began to lose himself in a netherworld of drug addiction from which he never really recovered.

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