Is there anything better than little kids singing in bands? There’s no shortage of songs about breaking off a relationship that is doing more harm than good. What there is, however, is a shortage of those songs being sung by an 11-year-old (!). When this single dropped (and appeared on the Sylvers’ sublime Sylvers II album), it was 1973 and Foster Sylvers was, in fact, 11! Even the oldest of the Sylver siblings pictured here couldn’t buy a beer when this record came out. Later that year, Foster’s older brother Leon would go on to pen Misdemeanor for him. That song would eventually hit the Billboard charts and then get rebounded back into popular consciousness with the onset of the hip-hop era, as the track was sampled by Bambataa, Big Daddy Kane and the D.O.C., to name just a few. Similarly, this tune is quick to amp people up whenever I play this out, as it’s the sample for Ghostface Killah’s Be Easy, produced by the one and only — and very necessary — Pete Rock.

— Post by Ben Fasman

Audio – The Sylvers – Stay Away From Me