Saturday March 27, 2021 “Hot Fun in the Summertime” Sly & the Family Stone
A while back, song of the dayer Lou, made a very profound statement. He said that for some reason he was able to remember the lyrics of songs from decades ago but couldn’t tell you what he had for breakfast. I think we can all relate. Maybe if we had musical cereal it would help, but breakfast just isn’t important enough to remember in the same way we think about music.
It has been interesting to see the memories of song of the dayers with this little exercise and thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions. Here’s our last ‘best of’ song of the day suggested by Will and it goes back to summer of 2020 and suggests what we hopefully have to look forward to this year, “hot fun in the summertime…”
Tuesday August 25, 2020 “Hot Fun in the Summertime” Sly & the Family Stone
“That’s when I had most of my fun…”
Sylvester Stewart was a popular radio DJ at KSOL in San Francisco using the on-air name of Sly Stone, think maybe the fictional WKRP TV series characters Dr. Johnny Fever or Venus Flytrap. He was also a multi-instrumentalist who moonlighted doing some record production with late 60’s Bay Area bands like the Beau Brummels (“Laugh, Laugh”) and had a couple of initial unsuccessful solo recording adventures of his own.
It wasn’t until he put together a band with his sister Rose and brother Freddie along with what was likely the most racially, sexually and instrumentally diverse band of the time. Appropriately named Sly and the Family Stone
And oh yeah, they were good.
Their breakthrough single was “Dance to the Music '' which captured the high energy ‘psychedelic funk’ that the band, guided by songwriter and arranger Sly Stone would become famous for. “Hot Fun” garnered some wide exposure when Sly introduced it at Woodstock I to propel it to number 2 on the Billboard charts and it would be listed on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Unfortunately Sly would become as famous for his drug related problems and his penchant for showing up hours late for shows or sometimes not at all.
Stay safe and well... it’s “summertime and everything it’s true, ooooh yeah.”