Artist:Sly & The Family Stone
Song:Dance To The Music
Album:Dance To The Music
Dance To The Music was Sly & The Family Stone's first top ten pop hit and was very influential in mixing funk, R & B and psychedelic music in the late 60s. Sly's 1967 debut album A Whole New Thing was critically acclaimed but it flopped. So Columbia/Epic Records executive Clive Davis told Sly that he wanted a pop record. Of course Sly was a successful DJ in San Francisco and produced groups like The Beau Brummels & Bobby Freeman so he knew exactly what he needed to do. The group wasn't very happy about going more commercial but that's exactly what they did. Sax player Jerry Martini said Dance To The Music was just "glorified Motown beats" and "a very unhip thing to do". But it worked. Dance To The Music is still a great party song and features vocals by Sly Stone, Freddie Stone & Larry Graham along with Cynthia Robinson's ad libs. It launched Sly & The Family Stone into the mainstream and started a long string of hits. It was also a big influence as groups like The Temptations were mixing soul with psychedelic music later in 1968. Epic rereleased Dance To The Music on CD in 2007 with several bonus tracks. Here's Sly & The Family Stone performing Dance To The Music on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968.
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