Stand! (1969)

Stand! is the fourth album by American soul-funk band Sly and the Family Stone, released on May 3, 1969. Written and produced by lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, Stand! is considered an artistic high-point of the band's career. Released by Epic Records, just before the group's celebrated performance at the Woodstock festival, it became the band's most commercially successful album to date. It includes several well-known songs, among them hit singles, such as "Sing a Simple Song", "I Want to Take You Higher", "Stand!", and "Everyday People". The album was reissued in 1987 on compact disc and vinyl, and again in 2007 as a remastered numbered edition digipack CD with bonus tracks and, in the UK, as only a CD with bonus tracks.

The album sold 500,000 copies in 1969 and was certified gold in sales by the RIAA on December 4 of that year. It peaked at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the chart for nearly two years. By 1986, it had sold well over 1 million copies and was certified platinum in sales by the RIAA on November 21 of that same year. It then went on to sell over three million copies, becoming one of the most successful albums of the 1960s. In 2003, the album was ranked number 118 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, 121 in a 2012 revised list, and number 119 in a 2020 reboot of the list. In 2015, the album was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry. In 2015, Stand! was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Production

Stand! was recorded after Life, a commercially unsuccessful album. Although the Family Stone's single "Dance to the Music" was a top ten hit in early 1968, none of the band's first three albums reached above 100 on the Billboard 200. Stand! reached number thirteen and launched Sly Stone and his bandmates Freddie Stone, Larry Graham, Rose Stone, Cynthia Robinson, Jerry Martini, and Greg Errico into the pop music mainstream.

Much of the album was recorded at Pacific High Recording Studios in San Francisco. The band's A&R director and photographer Stephen Paley recalled how "together" Sly Stone was while working on Stand!, constantly referring to Walter Piston's Orchestration textbook, unlike his erratic behavior and work after he became dependent upon cocaine within a year of the album's success.

Songs

Stand! begins with the title track on which Sly sings lead, a mid-tempo number launching into a gospel break for its final forty-nine seconds. Most of the Family Stone was unavailable for the session at which this coda was recorded: Sly, drummer Gregg Errico and horn players Cynthia Robinson and Jerry Martini were augmented by session players instead. Errico recalls that many liked the gospel extension more than they did the song proper, and that; "People would always ask, 'why didn't you go there and let that be the song?'" The second track, titled "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey", has few lyrics save for the chorus Don't call me "nigger", whitey/Don't call me "whitey", nigger and a single verse sung by Rose Stone. On "I Want to Take You Higher" Freddie Stone, Larry Graham, Rose Stone, and Sly Stone take turns delivering the lead vocal and all seven band-members deliver the shouted backing vocals. Sly Stone, Robinson, Freddie Stone, Graham, and Martini all play instrumental solos.

On "Somebody's Watching You" Sly Stone, Graham, Freddie Stone, and Rose Stone deliver the vocal in unison. The song's slightly pessimistic tone would be expanded upon later in the band's career with "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" and the There's a Riot Goin' On LP, and would be a hit for the Family Stone's vocal group Little Sister, the first Top 40 single to use a drum machine. "Sing a Simple Song" urges the audience to "try a little do re mi fa so la ti do". Diana Ross & the Supremes, The Temptations and The Jackson 5 all recorded cover versions of the song. The track's guitar riff is heard on Ike & Tina Turner's "Bold Soul Sister" (from The Hunter, 1969), Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys (1970) and Miles Davis' A Tribute to Jack Johnson (1971).