Greatest Hits

由Sly Stone在1967年效仿海湾地区的嬉皮士社团建立起来的一个包括黑、白两个人种，有男有女的乐队。他们将摇滚舞曲节拍和迷幻摇滚中常见的吉他演奏风格结合起来，外界一般把他们的风格归为funk类，不过他们比一般的funk显然要“轻”得多。由于Sly本人有唱诗班的经历，他们称自己的风格为“迷幻灵魂乐”，这个词或许还准确一些。 他们演唱时惯于将两个明显不同的男声部与一个女声部并置在一起，产生一种独特的和声效果，听过之后，觉得确实相当有特色。 这张专辑在滚石杂志选出的500张历代最强专辑中排名第60位。 Released in 1970 during the stopgap between Stand! and There's a Riot Goin' On, Greatest Hits inadvertently arrived at precisely the right moment, summarizing Sly & the Family Stone's joyous hit-making run on the pop and R&B charts. Technically, only four songs here reached the Top Ten, with only two others hitting the Top 40, but judging this solely on charts is misleading, since this is simply a peerless singles collection. This summarizes their first four albums perfectly (almost all of Stand! outside of the two jams and "Somebody's Watching You" is here), adding the non-LP singles "Hot Fun in the Summertime," "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," and "Everybody Is a Star," possibly the loveliest thing they ever recorded. But, this isn't merely a summary (and, if it was just that, Anthology, the early-'80s comp that covers Riot and Fresh would be stronger than this), it's one of the greatest party records of all time. Music is rarely as vivacious, vigorous, and vibrant as this, and captured on one album, the spirit, sound, and songs of Sly & the Family Stone are all the more stunning. Greatest hits don't come better than this — in fact, music rarely does.