Rolling Stone’s guide titled “20 Essential Songs” currently shows 19 selections, and its companion Apple Music playlist also contains 19 tracks. Together, they trace Sly and the Family Stone from early experiments through exuberant pop-funk and socially engaged anthems to the hazier, more inward music of the 1970s. The guide is a critic’s listening path, not a ranking or a complete discography.
What songs are on Rolling Stone’s Sly and the Family Stone list?
The accessible Rolling Stone Australia/New Zealand guide, written by Oliver Wang and published June 10, 2025, names these 19 songs in this order. Its title says 20; the visible entries and companion playlist do not supply a twentieth selection. Apple Music lists the playlist at 1 hour 8 minutes when accessed in 2026, a count that may change.
- “Rock Dirge” (circa 1965)
- “I Ain’t Got Nobody” (1967)
- “Underdog” (1967)
- “Dance to the Music” (1968)
- “Dynamite” (1968)
- “Everyday People” (1969)
- “Sing a Simple Song” (1969)
- “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” (1969)
- “I Want to Take You Higher” (1969)
- “Hot Fun in the Summertime” (1969)
- “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (1970)
- “Everybody Is a Star” (1970)
- 6ix, “I’m Just Like You” (1970)
- “Family Affair” (1971)
- “Running Away” (1971)
- “Luv N’ Haight” (1971)
- “If You Want Me to Stay” (1973)
- “Can’t Strain My Brain” (1974)
- “Remember Who You Are” (1979)
Read the Rolling Stone guide or open its Apple Music playlist to follow the sequence. The years above are those presented in the guide; “Rock Dirge” is dated approximately.
How the songs trace the band’s changing sound
Early experiments and a breakthrough formula
The path starts with Stone’s early solo-era experiment “Rock Dirge,” then moves into the first group releases, including “I Ain’t Got Nobody” and “Underdog.” The latter’s directness resonated beyond the band: George Clinton, as quoted by official Family Stone biographer Jeff Kaliss in the guide, said “you felt like they were speaking directly to you personally.”
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“Dance to the Music” marks the turn toward a more accessible, group-centered sound. Rolling Stone describes it as the band’s first Top 10 hit by spring 1968, without specifying an exact chart position. Saxophonist Jerry Martini recalled the formula with mixed feelings: “It was so unhip to us. The beats were glorified Motown. We did the formula thing.” “Dynamite” continues this early, energetic phase.
1969–70: exuberance, unity and social address
The 1969 selections show how the group could turn a buoyant sound toward very different purposes. “Everyday People” offers an optimistic plea for everyday acceptance; “Sing a Simple Song” foregrounds lean, forceful ensemble playing. Drummer Greg Errico described its feel: “The track was laid so down to the bone and we all knew it was. You could feel it.” Trumpeter Cynthia Robinson also recalled the group’s freedom in performance: “We were free to adlib things. Sly would cut things off in a different way than the real recordings; he’d just stop it and go into something else.”
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“Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” confronts race directly, while “I Want to Take You Higher” channels the band’s communal energy into an ecstatic invitation. “Hot Fun in the Summertime” adds a more relaxed, seasonal mood. The sequence then pairs “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” with “Everybody Is a Star”: the first is a defining funk statement, with Larry Graham’s bass approach singled out by the guide, and the second returns to self-affirmation and shared worth. Music writer and scholar Ricky Vincent’s assessment, quoted in the guide, is that “perhaps more than any other record, ‘Thank You’ introduced the Decade of Funk.”
“I’m Just Like You,” credited here to 6ix, broadens the picture beyond the best-known hits. The guide connects it with Sly Stone’s studio experimentation and quotes him on the anthology’s liner notes: “All instruments are real. Anything that can express your heart, it’s an instrument, man.”
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There’s a Riot Goin’ On and the turn inward
The 1971 tracks shift the emotional weather. “Family Affair” steps away from sunny uplift; the guide notes its drum-machine rhythms. “Running Away” and “Luv N’ Haight” belong to the same period, with the latter characterized by a hazy, layered sound. “Thank You for Talkin’ to Me Africa,” the reworking of “Thank You” discussed in the guide, extends that blurred, atmospheric approach. These readings are the guide’s interpretation of the music, not a single definitive explanation of the album.
That contrast is part of what makes the selection useful as a listening journey: the collective optimism of “Everyday People” and “Everybody Is a Star” gives way to the more shadowed textures associated with There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971). Rather than treating funk, rock and pop as separate boxes, the guide presents a group whose work crosses those styles as its sound and circumstances change.
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Later songs and changing personnel
“If You Want Me to Stay” (1973), “Can’t Strain My Brain” (1974) and “Remember Who You Are” (1979) carry the listening path beyond the band’s breakthrough years, into later releases and changing personnel. On “If You Want Me to Stay,” Stone’s explanation, as relayed by the guide from a radio interview, is plainspoken: “That’s exactly what I meant, what I wrote. If you want me to stay, let me know. Otherwise, sayonara.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Where to listen beyond the list
The guide points toward both familiar catalog material and archival listening. The official Sly and the Family Stone site is a place to check for catalog and archival releases. Its current listings do not establish which physical editions are in stock or available in every region, so check the format, edition and seller directly. A greatest-hits collection can be a convenient route to familiar songs, but it should not be mistaken for an exact physical edition of this 19-track guide.
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