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| "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" | ||||
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| Single by Sly & the Family Stone | ||||
| from the album Greatest Hits | ||||
| A-side | "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" "Everybody is a Star" |
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| Released | December 1969 | |||
| Format | 7" single | |||
| Recorded | 1969 | |||
| Genre | Funk/soul | |||
| Length | 4:48 | |||
| Label | Epic 5-10555 |
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| Writer(s) | Sly Stone | |||
| Producer | Sly Stone | |||
| Sly & the Family Stone singles chronology | ||||
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"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)", released in December 1969, is a 1970 hit single recorded by Sly & the Family Stone, recognized as one of the greatest and most influential funk songs of all time. The song, double a-sided with "Everybody is a Star", reached number one on the soul single charts for five weeks, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970.[1]. Some music scholars[who?] consider it the first recording to feature the matured form of funk music, after a half-decade of proto-funk records from the Family Stone, James Brown, Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, and others. "Thank You" was intended to be included on an in-progress album with "Star" and "Hot Fun in the Summertime"; the LP was never completed, and the three tracks were instead included on the band's 1970 Greatest Hits LP. "Thank You" and "Star", the final Family Stone recordings issued in the 1960s, marked the beginning of a twenty-month gap of releases from the band, which would finally end with the release of "Family Affair" in 1971.
Rolling Stone ranked the song #402 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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Song information
Overview
The title is a unique way of writing what would otherwise be "thank you for letting me be myself again." The lyrics can be interpreted as a summation of both the career of Sly & the Family Stone to date, as well as a portrait of the era at the transition from the 1960s into the 1970s. The third verse contains specific references to the group's previous hit songs, "Dance To The Music" "Everyday People", "Sing a Simple Song", and "You Can Make It If You Try." The song features co-lead vocals from Sly Stone, Rose Stone, Freddie Stone, and Larry Graham.
Bassist Larry Graham, prominently uses the then-new technique of slap bass on this recording.
Cover versions
The first act to cover "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" was Sly & the Family Stone itself. The cover, recorded in 1971 for There's a Riot Going On, completely transformed the song into a seven-minute track titled "Thank You For Talkin' to Me Africa". Although the lyrics, vocalists, and musicians are all the same, the record itself is as different from the original "Thank You" as that record had been from the earlier Family Stone records. The song's lyrics are delivered in a depressed tone with heavily reverberated vocals, over a slow, stripped-down deep funk backing track.
The song has been covered by many other acts, including The Jackson 5, Widespread Panic, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Victor Wooten, Dave Matthews & Friends, the Dave Matthews Band, Magazine, Merl Saunders & the Rainforest Band. UK hip hop act Big Brovaz covered the song for use in the Warner Bros. film Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. They also sampled the song to create the theme song for the movie, "We Wanna Thank You (The Things You Do)". Gladys Knight and the Pips and several others have also covered the song. Freddie Stone's guitar riff from the bridging sections of the song is immediately recognizable to modern audiences as the backbone of Janet Jackson's 1989 hit single "Rhythm Nation". Van Morrison does an expanded version of the song in a medley with "Soldier of Fortune" on his Night in San Francisco album. Rapper Vanilla Ice also sampled "Thank You" as part of the soundtrack to his film, Cool as Ice.
The song recently appeared in 2007 during the closing credits of "Shrek the Third", as performed by Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas).
The Rolling Stones have rehearsed the song in May 2007 in Vilvoorde, Belgium before their A Bigger Bang Eur07 Tour, but the song has not been performed in concert.
Soundgarden performed this song numerous times on their 1989 tour as well as during their John Peel session that year.[2]
Dave Matthews Band has performed the song numerous times on their 2008 summer tour. It was often featured as the final song of the encore.[3] It was released on Live Trax Vol. 13, from St. Louis, Missouri, and also on Live at Mile High Music Festival, from their set in Commerce City, Colorado. It was the last song LeRoi Moore performed as a member of Dave Matthews Band. That performance of the song is featured on Live Trax Vol. 14.
In 2009, the song became a staple on the North American leg of U2's 360 Tour in support of their album "No Line On The Horizon."
Credits
- Co-lead vocals by Sly Stone, Rose Stone, Freddie Stone, and Larry Graham
- Guitar by Freddie Stone and Sly Stone
- Bass by Larry Graham1
- Drums by Greg Errico
- Horns by Jerry Martini (tenor saxophone) and Cynthia Robinson (trumpet)
- Written and produced by Sly Stone
1 Sly Stone plays bass guitar on the "Thank You For Talkin To Me, Africa" version from There's a Riot Goin' On.
Samples
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| Preceded by "Venus" by Shocking Blue |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single February 14, 1970 (two weeks) |
Succeeded by "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel |
| Preceded by "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5 |
Billboard's Best Selling Soul number one single February 7 - March 7, 1970 |
Succeeded by "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Brook Benton |
References
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 534.
- ^ "Soundgarden Live Guide". http://web.archive.org/web/20041011125527/www.ilstu.edu/~mareede/sglg89.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22.
- ^ "DMBAlmanac.com". http://dmbalmanac.com/TourSongShows.aspx?sid=257&tid=98&where=2008. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
See also
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