100 Great Fake Sly Stone Songs

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in no particular order

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

1. Human League - "(Keep Feeling) Fascination"

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

2. Madonna - "Keep it Together"

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

3. The Gap Band - "Fontessa Fame"

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

4. Money Mark "All the People"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)

5. Prince — "Shockadelica" (though, really, this should be #1)

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

6. Graham Central Station - everything they ever did

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

"Fascination" as fake Sly - yeah! Probably also should have been brought up on the "Songs That Rock With Synth Horns" thread.

― briania (briania), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:38 (twenty-two years ago)

7. The Temptations - Cloud Nine (in fact everything Norman Whitfield ever did)

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:40 (twenty-two years ago)

8. Billy Preston, "Nothing From Nothing"

(the bass and horns sound straight out of "If You Want Me to Stay")

9. Archie Bell & the Drells, "Tighten Up"

(could have been the sequel to "Dance to the Music")

― Joseph McCombs, Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

8. whatever that one song is that goes "people are people so why should it be that you and I should get along so awfully".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

shit...10

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

11. Jackon Five - I Want You Back

― briania (briania), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Jackson. If there is a Jackon Five, it would be a different kind of group.

― briania (briania), Thursday, 27 May 2004 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

everyday sunshine - fishbone

― Rocco, Thursday, 27 May 2004 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

14. The Make-Up "AK-47"

― js, Thursday, 27 May 2004 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

15. "Play that Funky Music White Boy"

― BrianB (BrianB), Thursday, 27 May 2004 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm so glad to finally not be the guy to post a Fishbone song to a list thread.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 27 May 2004 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

16. AC/DC "Meanstreak"

― dave q, Thursday, 27 May 2004 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

17. Funkadelic, "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure"

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 27 May 2004 18:01 (twenty-two years ago)

every amp fiddler song ever.

― thesplooge (thesplooge), Thursday, 27 May 2004 18:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Talking Heads, "Crosseyed and Painless"

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Thursday, 27 May 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm assuming you mean the bass, b/c Eno loved it in "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Again)". Otherwise, it doesn't sound a thing like Sly...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 27 May 2004 18:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Prince - "Dance On"

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 27 May 2004 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know about "Tighten Up" as fake Sly Stone.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 27 May 2004 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno about "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" either - too greasy for Sly, the only thing it shares in common is the multiple lead vocalist technique (which Funkadelic did *all the time*). Plus they use that riff in like three other songs.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 27 May 2004 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Funkadelic's "If You Don't Like the Effects, Don't Produce the Cause" is kind of Sly-esque.

― dleone (dleone), Thursday, 27 May 2004 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, that seems a little more on the mark . The Sly element in Funkadelic is undeniable, I just dunno if "You Can't Miss What You Can't Measure" is really a good example of it.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 27 May 2004 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

20. Stevie Wonder - Boogie on Reggae Woman

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Thursday, 27 May 2004 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

21. Edgar Winter's White Trash - Give it Everything You Got

― Dr. Annabel Lies (Michael Kelly), Thursday, 27 May 2004 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

22. Manic Street Preachers, "La Tristessa Durera"

― dave q, Friday, 28 May 2004 03:39 (twenty-two years ago)

what a mix tape this thread would make... except for the manic street preachers.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:42 (twenty-two years ago)

23. "Toxic," Britney Spears

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:49 (twenty-two years ago)

24. Bobby Womack - Communication

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 28 May 2004 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

eighteen years pass...

REVIVE. I stumbled on this thread a while ago, and ended up making a Spotify playlist so that I could easily check out the suggestions. it doesn't have "Toxic" (which seemed like a then-topical joke suggestion) and "Fontessa Fame" (which isn't on Spotify); i also made some quick guessy picks for Graham Central Station. i agree with Tim Ellison that "Tighten Up" doesn't quite fit - it seems way closer to a Southern soul, Stax/FAME type of thing, but i left it in.

anyway, i think it's a fun topic because the band clearly do have some sonic and songwriting signatures, and clearly were massively influential. but i feel like they don't get talked up enough in a "you can't understand the music of the 1970s without Sly and the Family Stone" kind of way. i think my favorites here are the ones that really are homages made from some temporal remove, like the Fishbone pick. there must be way, way more of these!

― got it in the blood, the kid's a pelican (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 19 February 2023 21:00 (three years ago)

I couldn’t find it on Spotify and it is a sample-era half-cover rather than a soundalike, but I always enjoyed the KLF’s Burn The Bastards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i7Rn__3Mco

― meat and two vdgg (emsworth), Monday, 20 February 2023 01:17 (three years ago)

Is "Misunderstanding" by Genesis not mentioned here because no-one thinks it's "great"?

― Halfway there but for you, Monday, 20 February 2023 01:37 (three years ago)

25. Chance the Rapper “Finish Line”
(or so I thought when I heard it today)

― assert (matttkkkk), Monday, 20 February 2023 11:57 (three years ago)

D'Angelo "Ain't That Easy"

― fetter, Monday, 20 February 2023 14:05 (three years ago)

two years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16GIMHD2_5c

26. The Chi-Lites, "We Are Neighbors." There's a stretch of their Greatest Hits (corresponding largely to 1971's (For God's Sake) Give More Power to the People) that swings heavily into psychedelic soul, but this one struck me as especially Sly-ish.

― Hiphoptimus Rhyme (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 18 October 2025 13:31 (eight months ago)

oops, should be 27

― Hiphoptimus Rhyme (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 18 October 2025 13:31 (eight months ago)

I dunno if this warrants a numeral but I once asked John Mellencamp why "Cherry Bomb" had three different lead vocalists trading lines on one verse and he said it was a Sly and the Family Stone homage. I suspect the same is true of Prince's "1999."

― some dude, Sunday, 19 October 2025 00:12 (eight months ago)

28. World Party '' 'ain't gonna come til I'm ready'

― X-Prince Protégé (sonnyboy), Sunday, 19 October 2025 05:37 (eight months ago)

29.Prince “Love or Money (aka 🖤 or $) especially the 45 played at 33rpm

― completely suited to the horny decadence (Capitaine Jay Vee), Sunday, 19 October 2025 11:33 (eight months ago)

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