Sly and the Family Stone Celebrated Their Peak Moment With the Ultimate Summer Song

Very few acts delivered the kind of musical versatility of Sly And The Family Stone. With Sly Stone at the helm as the chief songwriter and musical maestro, the band could change up their approach from song to song without losing any of their commercial appeal.

Videos by American Songwriter

With “Hot Fun In The Summertime”, they provided one of the easiest-going summer songs of all time. Listen closely, however, and you’ll hear more than a little melancholy beneath the surface.

Stone Hot

There comes a time in the career of every legendary artist or act when they reach a pinnacle so high that it feels like the entire music world is waiting for what they’ll do next. For Sly And The Family Stone, that time came in the summer of 1969.

Not a bad historical moment, if you could choose one, to attain such a peak. That was an unforgettable summer, not only because of the moon landing. In the world of American music, two massive music festivals highlighted the best of what artists of the era had to offer. Sly And The Family Stone made memorable appearances in both.

First came the Harlem Cultural Festival in June 1969, an event later commemorated in thrilling fashion by the 2021 documentary Summer Of Soul. In August, the band got right back to it in front of massive audiences at the Woodstock festival. It says something about the widespread impact that this band made that they were so at home in both. And they also released a massive single in “Hot Fun In The Summertime” in that season.

Seasonal Success

The band was not only riding high based on those incredible concert appearances. Their studio work had also gained them wide acclaim, especially with their 1969 album Stand!. Wanting to keep the momentum rolling after that record spawned several hits, Sly Stone initially planned to release “Hot Fun In The Summertime” at the start of the season.

But Sly didn’t exactly move at a furious pace when it came to releasing music. As such, the song took a little bit longer to arrive. The band released it in August, which actually turned out to be wonderful timing, considering everything else they had going on at the time.

“Hot Fun In The Summertime” showed off the depth of talent within the band, as four different singers took turns on the microphone during the song. It also displayed Sly Stone’s sneaky songwriting depth. The narrator isn’t exactly celebrating the seasonal exploits he describes, if only because the summer is gone, right along with his love.

Behind the Lyrics of “Hot Fun In The Summertime”

The narrator of “Hot Fun In The Summertime” begins by remembering the good times. “End of the spring / And here she comes back,” he recalls. “That’s when I had / Most of my fun, back.” He recounts the other pleasures of the summer months, such as country fairs and the absence of school. “And everything is true,” he rhapsodizes.

By the second verse, everything has changed, which seems to be Stone’s way of hinting at the ephemeral nature of the season. “First of the fall / And then she goes back,” he sighs. “Bye, bye, bye, bye there.”

You don’t have to notice any of that nuance to appreciate “Hot Fun In The Summertime”. But thanks to Sly And The Family Stone’s efforts, it’s a song that will hit home for those either basking in summer’s glow or hiding from it.

Photo by CBS via Getty Images