Sly and the Family Stone's "Greatest Hits" Album

To minimize the gap between Sly and the Family Stone's album releases, Epic Records released a "Greatest Hits" album in 1970 (Wikipedia). This album has gone on to receive wonderful reviews and was even given the number 60 spot on the 2003 Rolling Stone Greatest Albums of All Time list. After beginning to listen to "Greatest Hits" for the first time, I quickly realized how the album received such a significant honor. This album, in my opinion, beautifully combines elements of various music genres with incredibly positive vibes and upbeat vocal harmonies into a complex, detailed, and wonderfully composed album. It displays elements of funk, R&B, psychedelic soul, rock, and other musical genres, and it has an overall uplifting and empowering vibe evident in each of the album's twelve songs.

In the review of Sly and the Family Stone's "Greatest Hits" album in the 2003 Rolling Stone Greatest Albums of All Time list, Rolling Stone states, "Sly and the Family Stone created a musical utopia." This is very evident on the album, with the blending of many musical genres to bring about a positive message. In "You Can Make It If You Try," the sixth track on "Greatest Hits," lyrics such as "Push a little harder, think a little deeper," "Wake up and go for what you know," and "You got to move if you want to be ahead" display the continuous self-empowering message depicted throughout the "Greatest Hits" album, over harmonious rhythms and cheery melodies, making the positive message of the album plain as day.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a review on Allmusic.com, confirms the brilliance of Sly and the Family Stone's "Greatest Hits" album, stating, "Music is rarely as vivacious, vigorous, and vibrant as this, and captured on one album, the spirit, sound, and songs of Sly and the Family Stone are all the more stunning. Greatest hits don't come better than this -- in fact, music rarely does." Erlewine's review shows the magnitude of respect this album has garnished, and why it very much so deserves the 60th spot on the Rolling Stone Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Robert Christgau gave Sly and the Family Stone's "Greatest Hits" album an A+ rating, stating, "this is among the greatest rock and roll LPs of all time." I have to agree after hearing this album several times. Sly Stone's penchant for upbeat, danceable music is very evident on this groovy funk album that catalogs his previous four albums high points very effectively. This is quite surprising, considering Stone's label just "cobbled together a greatest hits disc from the four albums Stone had recorded so far (as well as some b-sides), and rushed it to the stores so listeners wouldn't lose interest," as Andrew Gilstrap stated on his review of the "Greatest Hits" album on PopMatters.com.

I, personally, liked this album because of it's astonishing combination of a variety of vocal and musical stylings. Sly and the Family Stone's "Greatest Hits" album allows listeners an upbeat, harmonious album, and I think many people would find it difficult not to start tapping their feet or humming along to the enthusiastic melodies of this compilation album. Listening to the funky rhythms on the album's seventh track, "Dance To The Music," I quickly realized I had heard the song before, and I was pleased to hear tracks of a similar style throughout the entire "Greatest Hits" album. I greatly appreciated this album's blending of musical styles, a variety of instruments, and various singers vocals. Sly and the Family Stone blended these varieties all the while remaining upbeat throughout the entirety of the album. The "Greatest Hits" album goes above and beyond the union of the 12 tracks united on it. Sly and the Family Stone's "Greatest Hits" unites so many different musical genres, beats, and vocals, to create a fluid, euphonious, and hopeful album that has amazed myself and many others nearly 40 years after its original release.

Works Cited:

Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: Album: Sly & the Family Stone: Greatest Hits." Robert Christgau. Robert Christgau, 2 Nov. 2009. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Greatest Hits [Epic] Sly & the Family Stone." Allmusic. Rovi Corp., 2009. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .
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Gilstrap, Andrew. "Sly and the Family Stone: Greatest Hits." PopMatters. PopMatters Media, Inc., 27 Aug. 2007. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .

"Greatest Hits (Sly & the Family Stone Album)." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 19 June 2009. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .

60) Greatest Hits Sly and the Family Stone." Rolling Stone. N.p., 1 Nov. 2003. Web. 8 Nov. 2009. .