Thursday, July 11, 2013

Sly and the Family Stone Dust Off 'What's That Got to Do With Me'


Funk group unveil old recording of Jim and Jean track

Sly and the Family Stone are celebrating their career – and Sly Stone's 70th birthday – with the new anthology collection Higher!, out August 27th. To mark the release, the influential funk group dug deep into their vaults for mono single masters and old, rare recordings. Here, you can get an exclusive listen to Sly and the Family Stone's take on the track "What's That Got to Do With Me," originally by Jim and Jean.

Best Summer Songs of All Time: Sly and the Family Stone, 'Hot Fun in the Summertime'

"What's That Got to Do With Me" was originally released in February 1967; that July, Sly and the Family Stone were hard at work recording their debut, A Whole New Thing. Stone simply enjoyed the track, and the band set out to work on their own version. Jim and Jean's original featured gentle piano tickles and sweetly swinging drums, but the funk and soul masters inject excited energy into the track with wailing horns and soaring harmonies.

Higher!  features 77 tracks – 18 of which are previously unreleased – that span four CDs, as well as an illustrated 100 page book.