Get the latest gossip

Forever No. 1: Sly & the Family Stone’s ‘Thank You Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin’

Sly & the Family Stone's "Thank You Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin" showed the band in a much darker place than they'd been earlier in the '60s.

By year’s end, the Family Stone was unquestionably one of the biggest and most important acts in American pop music — and with the December release of the playfully and gratefully titled single “Thank You Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Agin” (as a double A-side alongside the sweeter but less spectacular “Everybody Is a Star”), you’d think the band was simply putting a nice bow on their ’60s run and looking forward to an equally thriving ’70s. And whether you did get Sly’s intent in the lyrics or just loved belting along to that chorus, you still would have no problem getting down to “Thank You.” As off-kilter and occasionally disconcerting as the song’s groove is, it is never less than 100% funky: arguably even more so than the band’s poppier early hits, which sometimes sanded off the grit that traditionally characterizes the best funk records. It has also been covered by everyone from Gladys Knight and the Pips to Van Morrison to Soundgarden, and sampled prominently by dozens of artists — most notably by Janet Jackson, who used the breakdown section as the backbone to her similarly iconic turn-of-a-decade Hot 100 smash, 1989’s No.

Get the Android app