Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday Peopl
Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday People


Sly & the Family Stone - Everyday People Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Stand!
Released: 1969

Everyday People Lyrics


Sometimes I'm right and I can be wrong
My own beliefs are in my song
The butcher, the banker, the drummer and then
Makes no difference what group I'm in

I am Everyday People, yeah yeah

There is a blue one who can't accept the green one
For living with a fat one trying to be a skinny one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo

Oh sha sha we got to live together

I am no better and neither are you
We are the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me you know me and then
You can't figure out the bag I'm in

I am everyday people, yeah yeah

There is a long hair that doesn't like the short hair
For bein' such a rich one that will not help the poor one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo

Oh sha sha we got to live together

There is a yellow one that won't accept the black one
That won't accept the red one that won't accept the white one
And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo

I am everyday people

Writer/s: STEWART, SYLVESTER
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Everyday People
  • Sly Stone wrote this about how everyone is essentially the same, regardless of race or background. Sly & the Family Stone was a mash up of musical styles with band members of different genders and ethnic backgrounds.
  • Billy Preston played organ on this. Preston has appeared on many famous songs, including some by The Beatles and Rolling Stones. (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for above 2)
  • Joan Jett hit #37 in the US with her 1983 cover version. Aretha Franklin, Belle & Sebastian and Pearl Jam also recorded the song, and Arrested Development used it as the basis of their 1992 hit "People Everyday."
  • This was featured in a series of television commercials for Toyota in the late 1990s. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 2)
  • This song takes some inspiration from Mother Goose, adding a twist to the traditional nursery rhyme "Rub-a-dub-dub." The familiar three men in a tub - the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker - become the butcher, the banker, the drummer, and, in the spirit of the song's message of solidarity among all people, Sly adds: "makes no difference what group I'm in."
  • This was used in the 1982 drama Purple Haze, starring Peter Nelson; the 2008 romantic dramedy Definitely, Maybe, starring Ryan Reynolds; and the 2008 biopic Milk, about gay rights activist Harvey Milk, starring Sean Penn.
  • This was featured on the TV drama Scandal in the 2012 episode "Crash and Burn."