I Want to Take You Higher

"I Want to Take You Higher" is a 1969 song by the soul/rock/funk band Sly & the Family Stone, the b-side to their Top 30 hit Stand!". Unlike most of the other tracks on the Stand! album, "I Want to Take You Higher" is not a message song; instead, it is simply dedicated to music and the feeling one gets from music. Like nearly all of Sly & the Family Stone's songs, Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart was credited as the sole songwriter.

Related Topics:
1969 - Soul - Rock - Funk - Sly & the Family Stone - B-side - Stand! - Stand! - Sylvester "Sly Stone" Stewart - Songwriter

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The song, one of the hardest hitting recordings in the Family Stone canon, is a remake of sorts of "Higher", a song from the band's 1968 Dance to the Music LP. Interestingly, "Higher" made the setlist for the band's performance at Woodstock alongside "I Want to Take You Higher"; Sly Stone used the song during a memorable interlude, during which he had the entire Woodstock crowd repeating, at three in the morning, the song's frantic cry of "higher!"

Related Topics:
1968 - Dance to the Music - Woodstock

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Even as a b-side, "I Want to Take You Higher" garnered enough radio play to become a Top 40 hit of its own by 1970. That same year, Ike & Tina Turner released a cover of the song that became a hit as well, peaking 4 spots above the original Family Stone recording on the US pop charts, but one position below the original on the R&B singles chart.

Related Topics:
1970 - Ike & Tina Turner - R&B singles chart

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