Today’s classic summer song of the day is “Hot Fun in the Summertime” by Sly and the Family Stone. This track, released in July of 1969, peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Best Selling Soul Singles chart.
As with most of his group’s songs, Sly Stone wrote and produced this one. The Family Stone at this point in time were true family members Freddie Stone on vocals and guitar and Rose Stone on vocals; Cynthia Robinson on trumpet; Jerry Martini on saxophone; Larry Graham on bass; and Greg Errico on drums. They knew how to cook.
“Hot Fun in the Summertime” is a song that percolates along at a slow boil. The lyrics reflect the singer’s longing for the summer days of his youth, “county fair in the country sun,” when school’s out and “everything is cool.” It was the perfect song for the hot, confusing summer of 1969, the summer of Woodstock and the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Manson family murders and the release of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album. I was 11 years old at the time and I can’t tell you how confusing that time was.
Back when I was working in the publishing industry, the company I worked for had a big book series launch at a repurposed Broadway theater in Manhattan. We were on a big stage with high-end A/V production, and the guy running the show wanted to know if I had any preference for music when I was walking on stage. I asked what he had to choose from, he told me, and I chose “Hot Fun in the Summertime.” It’s perfect walking out music, cool as hell with a simmering hotness under the surface. I liked it.
Sly and the Family Stone had a string of hits in the late ’60s and early ’70s, before Sly’s drug use got the better of him and his career. The group’s most well-known hits include “Dance to the Music” (#8 in 1967), “Everyday People” (#1 in 1968), “Stand!” (#22 in 1969), “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”/”Everybody Is a Star” (#1 in 1969), “I Want to Take You Higher” (#38 in 1970), and “Family Affair” (#1 in 1971). The group broke up in 1975.
After the band disbanded, Sylvester Stone recorded a handful of solo albums but eventually became somewhat of a drug-addled recluse. In September of 2011, the New York Post reported that Sly was homeless and living out of a camper-van in Los Angeles. He participated in a series of ill-conceived, erratically performed, and poorly received comeback concerts in the late 2000s, often starting late, stopping early, and on at least one occasion walking off stage in the middle of a set. He’s apparently still out there today, somewhere, 80 years old.
