The Who Prep Covers Album

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The Who are planning a collection of vintage R&B covers, similar to the Motown and James Brown songs they performed early on in their career. "We're digging through lots of material and seeing what will work," says producer T Bone Burnett, who expects to travel to London this fall to begin recording. "There's an incredible treasury of songs in the mode of what they used to play. Not 'Heat Wave' [an early favorite of the band], but ones that people probably haven't heard of." Pete Townshend may also write new material for the project. "It might be a combination of both," Burnett says. "We're still turning it over." In other Who news, the band will perform on July 12th in Los Angeles for VH1's Rock Honors.

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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