The Prince estate put out a box set called Ultimate Rave in 2019, which includes three discs. Two of the discs contain CD reissues of Prince’s albums Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic and its remix, Rave In2 the Joy Fantastic, which were released in the late 1990s. The third disc contains live concert footage of Prince with various special guests, including a performance of Sly and The Family Stone’s ‘Everyday People’ featuring Larry Graham, the original bassist for Sly and The Family Stone.
‘Everyday People’ was written by Sly Stone and appeared on the 1968 album Stand!. The song promotes the idea that people are more alike than different, regardless of their race, gender, or ideology. Billy Preston, who played with The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, played the organ on the original recording of the song and contributed to The Beatles’ single ‘Get Back’ in 1969.
The song ‘Everyday People’ was released during the counterculture movement and became a number-one hit in America in February 1969, holding the top spot for four weeks. Some have speculated that the cartoon shows Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! borrowed its name from the line in the song where Sly sings “And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo”.
However, it is more likely that the show took its name from Frank Sinatra’s scat single ‘Strangers in The Night’, in which he sings “doo-be-doobie-do”. In the live footage of ‘Everyday People’ featuring Larry Graham, he introduces the song with a long, drawn-out introduction before everything falls into place and the whole room starts moving.