Though it’s a quintessential summer song, the single, recorded for an album but rushed into release shortly after the band’s triumphant set at Woodstock, didn’t reach its No. 2 chart position until October of 1969.
As a summertime anthem, this might be Sly’s most-covered composition. An early-’80s funk band from Dayton, Ohio, called Dayton, gave it slicker production:
Manhattan Transfer, being incurably white, enlisted Chaka Khan to make their cover credible:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghqxpsiLJb0