Sly & The Family Stone ~ Hot Fun in the Summertime 1969 Soul Purrfection Version

Well this is Day 31 of remix a day challenge, and what better way to celebrate than with Sly & The Family Stone's "Hot Fun In The Summertime" a #2 Hot 100 for two weeks in October of 1969. The song that kept them out of the top spot, The Temptations "I Can't Get Next To You" a worthy opponent that they call out when Rose sings "I Cloud Nine when I want to".

Sylvester wrote the song to celebrate the warmest season of the year by talking with the group members and pieced it together using several ideas. Jerry Martini explains, "At the time, everybody including Motown acts started jumping on our vocal style. So there are two lines in "Summertime" about that, "I cloud nine when I want to" was aimed at the Tempts and the line that goes "bum buh bum bum when I want to" was Sly telling everybody "I know you are copying us, but we only do stuff when we want to."

The Family Stone continued to mine gold with "Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin" but the mood within the group was turning dark and it creatively manifested itself with that single and then "Family Affair" the darkest of all hitting the #1 spot. The hits dropped off after that but Sly kept relevant in the 80's by playing guitar on Jesse Johnson's "Crazay" a #53 pop hit.

Janet Jackson was three years old when "Summertime" came out and it had her jumping up and down. She describes it as the biggest musical influence on her life.