From “Dance to the Music” to There’s a Riot Goin’ On, the songs that defined one of the most important catalogs in funk and soul history.
Sly Stone didn’t just make great music. He made music that changed what great music was allowed to be.
From 1967 to 1975, Sly and the Family Stone produced one of the most important catalogs in the history of popular music. They were funky before funk had a name, politically conscious before it was fashionable, and sonically adventurous in ways the mainstream didn’t fully understand until years later.
If you want to understand the business side of what happened to the man behind this catalog, that story is worth your time: What Happened to Sly Stone’s Money?
But right now, let’s talk about the music.
The Early Years: Joy as a Weapon (1967–1969)
1. “Dance to the Music” (1968)
This is where it started for most of America. “Dance to the Music” hit in 1968 and it hit differently. Each instrument announcing itself, the band building in layers until everything is running at full speed. It sounds like a party and a thesis statement at the same time.
The meta-commentary could have been gimmicky. A song about dancing that tells you exactly what each part of it is doing should not work this well. It does because the joy is real and the playing is serious.
2. “Everyday People” (1968)
Their first number one pop hit and one of the most deceptively simple songs ever recorded. “Different strokes for different folks” went from song lyric to permanent feature of the American vocabulary almost overnight.
What people forget is how radical the band itself was as a visual statement. Sly Stone put together a genuinely integrated group in 1967 and put them on television. Black and white, men and women, together on stage. The music carried the argument.
3. “Stand!” (1969)
The title track of their commercial peak is one of the most direct things Sly Stone ever committed to tape. He wasn’t asking you to agree with him. He was asking you to hold a position.
The arrangement builds and refuses to give you the release you’re waiting for. At over four minutes, it functions like a sermon. The repetition is the point.
4. “I Want to Take You Higher” (1969)
Originally a deep cut on Stand!, this song became something larger on August 17, 1969, when Sly Stone walked out in front of 400,000 people at Woodstock and turned it into a collective ritual.
The Woodstock recording is one of the most electric moments in live music history. Sly understood that call and response at that scale was something new, and he used it.
5. “Sing a Simple Song” (1968)
One of the most underrated songs in this entire catalog. The title tells you exactly what it is, but the execution is anything but simple. Larry Graham’s bass does more work than the arrangement lets you see. Rose Stone’s vocals against Sly’s give the track a texture that the bigger productions don’t always reach.
The best Sly Stone songs feel effortless. That ease was engineered.
6. “Hot Fun in the Summertime” (1969)
Released as a standalone single in the summer of 1969, this track is the best single-song distillation of early-period Sly Stone. The layered vocals, the subtle chord movement underneath what sounds like a straightforward pop song, the way it ends before it overstays its welcome.
It is also a document of a specific cultural moment. The ease in this record would not last.
The Transition: The Last of the Light (1970)
7. “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (1970)
Their second number one pop hit and the last great statement from the early period. Larry Graham’s bass line on this record is one of the most studied and imitated in the history of popular music. He invented slap bass here. Every bass player in funk, R&B, and hip-hop owes something to this specific recording.
Listen to the title again. Thank you for letting me be myself. That is a different emotion than the pure celebration of the early records. Something had changed.
8. “Everybody Is a Star” (1970)
The B-side to “Thank You” and arguably the more affecting track of the two. Stripped back production, an unusually tender vocal from Sly, a warmth that the catalog would struggle to return to after this point.
This was one of the last times the music sounded uncomplicated.
The Dark Turn: There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971)
There’s a Riot Goin’ On is the dividing line. Before it, the catalog is joyful and expansive. After it, everything operates in heavier weather. Sly recorded almost the entire album himself on primitive multitrack equipment in his home studio, and it sounds exactly like that. Dense, murky, claustrophobic. It was unlike anything else being released in 1971.
9. “Family Affair” (1971)
Their third number one pop hit and one of the strangest records ever to reach that position. The drum machine pulse is cold. Sly’s vocal is flat in a way that communicates exhaustion more than performance. The production withholds every pleasure the early catalog offered.
And it is a great record. The economy of it, the way it locks into a groove and refuses to embellish it. “Family Affair” achieves its effect by refusing to give you what you came for.
10. “Runnin’ Away” (1971)
The other essential track from Riot. Paranoid, claustrophobic, the chorus sounding like an accusation turned inward. At just over two minutes it ends before you can find solid ground underneath it.
That is not a flaw. It is the point.
11. “You Caught Me Smilin’” (1971)
A moment of warmth inside the otherwise bleak Riot sessions. Cynthia Robinson’s trumpet and the vocal interplay give it something the surrounding tracks don’t attempt. The band’s musicianship did not deteriorate during this period. The circumstances changed. The instruments underneath those circumstances were still capable of beauty.
The Partial Recovery: Fresh and Beyond (1973–1974)
12. “If You Want Me to Stay” (1973)
One of the great songs from the post-Riot catalog and an argument for how much Sly Stone could accomplish with minimal means. The bass line. The directness of the vocal. The refusal to sentimentalize what is essentially a breakup ultimatum.
It reached the top 20 pop in 1973. For a moment it looked like a genuine second act was possible.
13. “In Time” (1973)
A showcase for drummer Andy Newmark and proof that Sly was still writing around a rhythm in ways that were ahead of what the mainstream was doing. “In Time” influenced James Brown’s late-period work and prefigured the stripped-down groove records that would define the late 1970s.
14. “Que Sera, Sera” (1974)
The most underplayed entry on this list. Sly’s version of the Doris Day standard appeared on Small Talk and does something remarkable with it. The phrase that sounds breezy and optimistic in the original sounds weary here. The arrangement turns resignation into something heavier.
It is a cover that tells you more about who is singing it than about the song itself.
Going Deeper: Three More Worth Your Time
15. “M’Lady” (1967)
From the debut album A Whole New Thing, before any of the commercial breakthroughs. Psychedelic, strange, more experimental than anything that would follow. “M’Lady” shows you the direction Sly was building toward before he simplified the approach for mainstream audiences.
Both versions of Sly Stone are worth understanding. The one who made “M’Lady” was building something different than the one who made “Everyday People.”
16. “Spaced Cowboy” (1969)
A deep cut from Stand! that rewards repeated listening. The groove is looser than the singles and the production choices are weirder. It points toward where Riot would eventually go three years before that album existed.
17. “Babies Makin’ Babies” (1973)
One of the underrated performances from the Fresh era. Direct, rhythmically adventurous, and a reminder that even in the post-Riot period Sly was still capable of moments that the earlier catalog would be proud of.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Sly and the Family Stone’s most famous song?
“Everyday People” is the song most people know first. It was their debut number one hit, it crossed over to both pop and R&B charts simultaneously, and the phrase “different strokes for different folks” never left the American vocabulary. “Family Affair” and “Dance to the Music” are close behind.
What genre is Sly and the Family Stone?
The honest answer is that they don’t fit cleanly into one. They were funk, soul, rock, and psychedelia all at once, often within the same song. That refusal to stay in one lane is a big part of why the catalog still sounds fresh. If you have to pick one word, funk is the closest.
Did Sly Stone write all his own songs?
Almost entirely, yes. Sly Stone wrote, produced, and arranged the overwhelming majority of the band’s catalog. He was also playing most of the instruments in the studio by the time of There’s a Riot Goin’ On. The level of creative control he had was unusual for the era, which makes what happened to the money behind that catalog a particularly important story.
Who sampled Sly and the Family Stone?
The list is long. “Sing a Simple Song” alone has been sampled by Tupac, Dr. Dre, De La Soul, TLC, and Public Enemy. Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation,” LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” and countless hip-hop records from the late 80s and 90s are built on Sly Stone loops and breaks. The catalog is one of the most sampled in the history of recorded music.
What is the best Sly and the Family Stone album to start with?
Stand! (1969) is the right entry point. It is the peak of the early period, it contains some of their biggest hits, and it gives you the full picture of what the band was capable of before everything changed. Once you have that as your foundation, There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971) is the essential next listen.
What happened to Sly Stone?
That question has a long answer that goes well beyond what most people know. The short version is that a combination of exploitative management, bad contracts, and a legal system that failed him left one of the most important artists in American music history living in a camper van while other people collected royalties from his catalog. The full story is here: What Happened to Sly Stone’s Money?
Where to Start
If you are new to this catalog, begin with Stand! (1969). It is the peak of the early period and one of the essential albums of the entire decade. Then go to There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971). Those two records tell the full story in contrasting extremes.
For the singles, the 2007 compilation The Essential Sly & the Family Stone covers the commercial run efficiently.
And if you want to understand what happened to the man who made all of this, the full story is here: What Happened to Sly Stone’s Money?
