* BlackSheepHit: "Dance to the Music" was done at the insistence of Creator/ColumbiaRecords chief Clive Davis, who pushed Sly to write a hit single. The rest of the band hated it at first, with sax man Jerry Martini calling it "glorified {{Creator/Motown}}" and "unhip". It became their BreakthroughHit.
* BreakupBreakout: Bassist Larry Graham. After the original Family Stone broke up in 1975, he went on to a successful career, both with his own band Graham Central Station and as a solo act.
* CreatorBreakdown: Sly provides a rather infamous example. His drug habits led to the DarkerAndEdgier ''There's A Riot Goin' On'', him missing shows and ultimately his personal and professional decline into poverty and homelessness.
* FountainOfExpies: They've been covered or sampled ''many'' times over the years, and were a major influence on Music/GeorgeClinton, Music/{{Prince}}, everyone ''they'' influenced, etc.
* HeAlsoDid:
** Under his birth name of Sylvester Stewart, Sly was a radio DJ in San Francisco and also a RecordProducer for several Bay Area rock acts in the years before he started his own band. One of his records as a producer was the original version of Music/JeffersonAirplane's "Somebody to Love" by Grace Slick's earlier band The Great Society (the BSide, "Free Advice", allegedly took over 50 takes in the studio to finish, causing Sly to quit in the middle of the session).
** Drummer Andy Newmark contributed to Music/PinkFloyd's ''Music/TheFinalCut'' and Music/RoxyMusic's ''Music/{{Avalon|RoxyMusic}}'' as a session musician, among others.
* ReferencedBy:
** Linda from ''Film/Snatched2017'' has a Sly and the Family Stone ticket stub in her scrapbook.
** Hank from ''Literature/TheHalfLifeOfPlanets'' considers doing a stripped-down, acoustic cover of a Sly and the Family Stone song for Beachfest.
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