Sly and the Family Stone “Stand!” 1969. Today, March 15th, is Family Stone frontman Sly Stone’s birthday (b. Sylvester Stewart, 1943). Stand! was their fourth album and the group’s most successful, hitting #13 on the Billboard pop chart and #3 on the R&B chart; the Library of Congress selected it for inclusion into the National Recording Registry in 2015. It also had significant impact on future R&B, soul and hip-hop artists, pretty much setting the standard for uplifting, socially critical, hook-laden funk and psychedelic soul. My favorite tracks are the ones I’m most familiar with – the hit singles “Everyday People” (which hit #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts and is also notable for the lyric “different strokes for different folks”) and its b-side “Sing a Simple Song” (#89 on the pop chart, #28 R&B) which ended up becoming one of the band’s signature songs (and was covered by, like, a million other artists including Prince, Diana Ross and The Jackson 5 and sampled by a million more: Public Enemy, De La Soul, Arrested Development…the freakin’ Spice Girls). Also released as a single was the hit title track “Stand!” which hit #13 on the Hot 100 chart and #14 on the Hot Soul chart in ‘69. Its b-side “I Want to Take You Higher” also became a top 40 hit in 1970 (#34, #24 on the R&B chart), likely propelled by the Family Stone’s inclusion of the song onto its Woodstock setlist in the summer of ‘69. (Ike & Tina Turner’s cover was even bigger hit, going to #25, also in 1970.) From Allmusic: “Stand! winds up infectious and informative, invigorating and thought-provoking – stimulating in every sense of the word.”