Sister Sledge

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Sister Sledge <tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3"> </td></tr>
Background information <tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Disco</td></tr><tr><td>Years active</td><td colspan="2">1972 - Present</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3">Members</th></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;" colspan="3">Kim Sledge Debbie Sledge Joni Sledge Kathy Sledge</td></tr>

Sister Sledge is an American musical group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 1972 and consisting of four singers, all of whom are sisters: Kim, Debbie, Joni, and Kathy Sledge. First entering the UK Singles Chart in 1975 with "Mama Never Told Me", their career went into decline before it revived under the magisterial production skills of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of CHIC. This association gave them their biggest successes which came in 1979: the popular disco anthems "We Are Family" (#1 R&B, #2 Pop in the U.S.) and "He's the Greatest Dancer" (#1 R&B, #9 Pop in the U.S.) Both songs were included on their eight song 1979 album We Are Family. Their follow up album was 1980's Love Somebody Today, which included the songs "Got to Love Somebody" (#6 R&B, #64 Pop in the U.S., #34 in the UK) and "Pretty Baby".

Switching to producer Narada Michael Walden in 1981, they released the album All-American Girls, yielding two hits (the title track, which reached #3 R&B and #79 Pop in the U.S. and #41 Pop in the UK), and "Next Time You'll Know", which reached #28 R&B in the U.S.) The sisters continued singing new material throughout the 1980s and 1990s. They achieved an international #1 hit with "Frankie" in 1985 (#1 in the UK for 4 weeks); surprisingly the follow-up single, "Dancing on the Jagged Edge", failed to make the UK Top 40. Their album African Eyes was released in 1998. In 2004 they headlined the International Food and Wine Festival at the Epcot theme park.

Their biggest hits have been re-released several times in the UK, often in newly-remixed versions which keep them sounding new and up–to–date. "We Are Family" is regarded by the feminist movement as a totemic statement – it reached number 7 in 1979, number 33 in 1984 and number 5 in 1993. "Lost in Music" reached number 17 in 1979, number 4 in 1984 and number 14 in 1993. "Thinking of You" reached number 11 in 1984 and number 17 in 1993. Originally their biggest UK hit back in 1979, peaking at number 6, "He's the Greatest Dancer" has not been a hit again in the UK as an updated version, although Will Smith sampled the backing music in his Top 3 UK hit "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".

[edit] Cover versions of songs by Sister Sledge

"All the Man That The I Need" was originally done by Linda Clifford in the 1970s
"All the Man That I Need" was covered by Whitney Houston in 1993.
"We Are Family" was covered by Babes in Toyland in 1995.
"We Are Family" was covered by the Spice Girls in 1998.
"Thinking of You" (written by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers) was covered by Monday Michiru in 1999.
"Lost in Music" was covered by Wackside in 2002.
"Thinking of You" (also written by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers) was covered by Paul Weller in 2004.