This song is about how everyone is equal and how people try to change themselves to be what the media wants them to be. For black individuals, it can be about how we try to change ourselves to "act white" but in the end the system brings us down, yet we bring ourselves back up with the help of our people. This was released as a double-A-side single with "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)." The single went to #1 in the US, so under Billboard methodology at the time, the chart position is attributed to both songs combined. Like many Sly & the Family Stone songs of this era - "Everyday People" and "Stand!" among them - "Everybody Is A Star" has a message of togetherness and self-worth. These songs were set against joyful melodies that kept them from sounding preachy. They went over very well at live shows where a sense of community formed. The nonsense chorus ("ba pa-pa-pa ba...") actually makes a lot of sense - it's about the power of music, which can speak without words. In this case, the rhythmic syllables play against horn lines in a very similar fashion to Otis Redding's 1966 track "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song).”
From: https://www.songfacts.com/facts/sly-the-family-stone/everybody-is-a-star
Remember how, in my post on “Everyday People,” I joked how it would be kind of impossible to see Sly Stone as one of the titular everyday people, given all of his talent and how his music was topping the charts? Well, he figured out a way around that conundrum, because of course he did. If Sly Stone, the star was everyday people, then it could only follow that everyday people were also stars!
Compared to the hard, dark funk of “Thank You (Falettine Be Mice Elf Again)” — which with it shared a 45RPM single, “Everybody is a Star” was a relatively normal slow soul song, full of lazy horns, glowing organ and of course the trademark vocal trade-offs between Sly, Rose Stone, Larry Graham and Freddie Stone.
But, of course, it is gorgeous, and the “everybody is a star” message still resonates in the social media era, maybe even more than it did in the late 60s. And, on top of all of that, “Everybody Is A Star” has a tremendous hook that takes over the back half of the song. With a great arrangement that stopped the song for each and every one of those “ooooooooohs,” “Everybody is A Star” never got out of second gear, but they were smart enough to know it didn’t need to. And so while — technically — “Thank You (Falettine Be Mice Elf Again)” was the song that got the credit for topping the charts, it probably wouldn’t have gotten there without “Everybody is A Star.”
As it turns out, “Everybody is A Star” was probably the last gasp of Sly Stone’s utopianism, as the toll of drugs and stardom and drugs sent him spiraling inwards — hell, the flipside of the single (which we’ll discuss tomorrow, duh) was literally about him dealing with, well, everything.
And, of course, both songs — plus “Hot Fun in the Summertime” — were going to be the anchor for Sly & The Family Stone’s much anticipated follow-up to Stand!, due out in 1970. But, of course, that follow-up never materialized, and all three songs made it to the epochal Greatest Hits album, instead. From: https://medialoper.com/certain-songs-2260-sly-the-family-stone-everybody-is-a-star/
