More than 30 different artists took the stage at the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival in August of 1969. Among them were some of the most famous and iconic musicians of that generation: Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Joan Baez, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. All were titans of popular music, but not all were “pop stars”.

Of that list of legendary musicians, only Joplin scored a number one hit during her career. Actually, it wasn’t during her career: Joplin’s only number one, ‘Me and Bobby McGee’, hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 a few months after the singer’s death in 1970. None of those other artists had ever topped the charts in America and would never throughout their careers (minus Young: CSN and CSNY never had a number one, but Young did with his solo single ‘Heart of Gold’).

It wasn’t as though they were devoid of hits, though. Creedence Clearwater Revival famously had five songs reach number two on the chart without ever landing that elusive number one. In fact, Creedence’s first number two hit was featured in their set at Woodstock. The song that kept it from reaching number one was played too just a few hours later.

The only act that went into Woodstock with a number one song to their name was Sly & the Family Stone. The soul-pop-rock hybrid group was one of the most popular bands in America, and their mix of genders and races proved to be revolutionary in desegregating some of the traditional makeup of bands at the time. The Family Stone were supposed to headline the Saturday, along with The Who and Jefferson Airplane. But by the time rain delays had their way, Sly Stone took the stage at 3:30am.

That didn’t stop him and his band from giving one of the most electrifying performances of the entire festival. Although they’re best remembered for their enthralling audience participation in ‘I Want to Take You Higher’, Sly & the Family Stone also had the distinction of playing the only number one hit at the Woodstock festival: ‘Everyday People’.

Throughout most of February 1969, ‘Everyday People’ was the number one song in America. During a good portion of that time, CCR’s ‘Proud Mary’ was stuck behind it at number two. CCR performed just a few hours before Sly & the Family Stone (Janis Joplin was sandwiched in between them), but John Fogerty famously saw an audience full of sleeping hippies. Nobody was sleeping when Sly Stone took the stage, which might explain why he had the number one hit and not Fogerty.