We first saw Sly and the Family Stone back in 1969 when they had their first number one song “Everyday People.” Sly’s group really was a family. His brother Freddie Stone played the guitar and helped on vocals. His sister Rose was a keyboardist as well as a singer. The three of them were all born with the name Stewart, but changed it to Stone for the band. The rest of the group were trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Greg Errico, bassist Larry Graham and saxophonist Jerry Martini. Larry Graham later left the Family Stone, formed a band called Graham Central Station and had some success during the mid-Seventies. He is also recognized as the first bass player to popularise the “slapping” method of playing the bass. The success of the group really took off after they appeared at Woodstock in August of 1969.

Sly and the Family Stone was the first big group that was both racially and sexually integrated, having men and women and black and white. A lot of pressure was put on the band because of this. The Black Panthers didn’t like it that he had white performers in the band and was demanding that he replace Errico and Martini. Sly did not want to do that and this caused some problems with him, personally. As the pressure grew, he turned to drugs and alcohol and all of the problems that are associated with those. He started missing concerts and angering his fans. It is said that he paid out more in missed concerts than he made during the 1970-1971 years.

People began to leave the band and eventually, even his family, his sister Rose left for other ventures. By the mid-Seventies, Sly and the Family Stone was no more. They did have one more number one hit “Family Affair” which we will get to in 1971.

Sly Stone is listed as the writer of both songs. “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” has always bothered me as the part in parenthesis looks like it’s a foreign language, but, as I’m sure most people realize it is just a mutilation of the phrase “Thank you for letting me be myself again.” This song ranks at 402 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

This was listed as a double sided hit with “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” hitting number one and “Everybody Is a Star” reaching number twelve, but both are considered number ones under Billboard’s policy to include both songs when only one was actually a number one. The pair entered the pop charts on January 10, 1970 and it hit number one the week of February 14, 1970 where it stayed for two weeks.

Here are videos for both songs from their Greatest Hits album.