By Erik Pedersen | Deadline Hollywood
Sly Stone, a Grammy winner whose pioneering funk-rock group Sly and the Family Stone produced groundbreaking albums and singles — three of which topped the Billboard Hot 100 — and was the subject of this year’s feature documentary Sly Lives!, died today. He was 82.
His family said he died after “a prolonged battled with COPD and other underlying health issues.”
Born Sylvester Stewart on March 15, 1943, in Denton Texas, the mercurial Stone wrote, produced, sang and played on the No. 1 singles “Everyday People,” “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” and “Family Affair” and a number of other hit singles including the Top 10 “Dance to the Music” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime.”
The group won one Grammy on 13 nominations, had three platinum and two gold albums, performed at Woodstock and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Formed in 1966 after a pair of bands were combined, Sly & the Family Stone made waves during the turbulent late 1960s not only with their music but the fact that the group was racially integrated and including men and women. Its first three albums in 1967-68 didn’t assault the charts — though the title track of Dance to the Music was a pop hit in the U.S. and UK — but that changed with the landmark 1969 LP Stand!
It reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 and began a run of three consecutive revered studio albums, plus a hits compilation, that cemented the band’s legacy as funk-rock pioneers as well as hitmakers. Stand! spawned The Family Stone’s singsong double-platinum single “Everyday People” and launched the group into stardom.
That summer, Sly & The Family Stone played an overnight set at Woodstock, following Janis Joplin’s group and ahead of The Who. The band’s medley of “I Want to Take You Higher”/”Music Lover” is featured in the 1970 movie about the legendary festival, and an extended version that also included “Dance to the Music” was on the film’s hit soundtrack triple LP, which spent four weeks at No. 1.
Epic Records then released Greatest Hits, which combined singles from Sly & The Family Stone’s first three LPs but also included a number of tracks appearing on LP for the first time. Among those were “Hot Fun in the Summertime,” “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” and the latter’s B-side “Everybody Is a Star.” The album was a smash, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard chart and eventually selling more than 5 million copies in the U.S. alone.
The band’s next album was 1971’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, which became the band’s lone chart-topper, spending two weeks at No. 1. It was followed by Fresh (1973), which also reached the Top 10. Stand!, Greatest Hits, There’s a Riot Goin’ On and Fresh all are represented in our sister publication Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
MORE TO COME…