Songfacts®:

• This feel-good disco song is fitting for Sister Sledge, a vocal group of four Sledge sisters: Kathy, Debbie, Kim and Joni (who died in 2017). The song could certainly apply to their family bonds, particularly the line, "I got all my sisters with me," but it's a more universal message.
  
  "It is so much more than just a family thing," Debbie Sledge told Hello magazine in 2023. "It means unity and it reaches beyond family. It can go through any group of people who align for the purpose of building each other up or accomplishing something for good."
• "We Are Family" was written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers; their band Chic had a hit at the time with "Le Freak." Rodgers and Edwards got the idea for the song's title when they first met the sisters and learned about their tight family connection.
• Sister Sledge are from Philadelphia and released their debut single, "Time Will Tell," in 1971 and sang backup for Philly groups like the Stylistics. They released albums in 1975 and 1977, but didn't get much attention until their third album, We Are Family, was issued in 1979 with the lead single "He's The Greatest Dancer," which climbed to #9 in the US (their only chart entry to this point was "Love Don't You Go Through No Changes On Me," which reached #92 in 1975).
  
  "We Are Family" was the next single, and it was huge, going to #2 in June 1979, held off the top by two other disco-rific hits: "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer and "Ring My Bell" by Anita Ward. The group had a few more minor hits in America (including a cover of "My Guy") and landed a #1 UK hit with "Frankie" in 1985.
• The chorus is the star of the show here, repeating twice to start the song. It repeats two more times after the first verse, then once more before fading out after the second verse. You're not going to forget it.
• According to Nile Rodgers, the little musical section that follows the line "Get up everybody and sing" comes from a song called "Do What You Wanna Do" by a group called Children Of God. As Rodgers tells it, he saw the band play at Woodstock; their lead singer was Martha Velez, whose brother Gerardo played congas during Jimi Hendrix' famous set.
  
  Rodgers says he was waiting for the right song to use it on and finally found it when he and Edwards wrote "We Are Family."
• Kathy Sledge, the youngest of the sisters, sang lead on this one. She was also the lead singer on "He's the Greatest Dancer."
• The single version runs a tight 3:34, but on the album it stretches out to 8:19, with those last five minutes filled with more choruses and some vocal runs by Kathy Sledge. This part has a party vibe with the sounds of revelers, à la "Got To Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye.
• "We Are Family" is very popular in the LGBTQ+ community and a staple at gay pride events. The group headlined Atlanta Pride in 2015, where Joni Sledge explained the appeal by saying, "The song is genuine. That's why it resonates with people."
• Luther Vandross, like Sister Sledge, was signed to the Cotillion label, and he sang backup on this track. Vandross' career took off in 1981 with his album Never Too Much.
• "We Are Family" became an anthem for women's groups and a message of unity. The sisters of Sister Sledge told Top 2000 a gogo they're proud of the song because it gives them a familial connection with their fans, who often share stories with the group about their own families. It also represents the closeness of the sisters, who grew up singing as a form of recreation. Their grandmother was an opera singer who taught the girls how to harmonize and invited them to sing at her church. In their early days of performing around Philadelphia, they were known as "Mrs. Williams' Granddaughters."
• Kathy Sledge, who sang lead, didn't know the lyrics when she recorded her vocal. When she went into the vocal booth, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards fed her each line through her headphones as it came up to give her vocal a spontaneous feel.
• Back in the early '80s when changing the channel often meant getting up and walking over to the TV, this song was used in commercials for an early version of Diet Pepsi called Pepsi Free, with the obvious line, "We are Pepsi Free." This brought the song back to mind, and it never really left.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team used "We Are Family" as their theme song in 1979 - don't tell Pirates fans the group is from Philadelphia. Led by Willie "Pops" Stargell, the team came back from a three games to one deficit to defeat the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. The song got constant airplay on Pittsburgh radio stations as the Pirates' season progressed. For the team, it represented players of different backgrounds coming together as one. The words "The Family" were emblazoned on top of their dugout during the World Series.
• This was used in these TV shows:
  
  Medium ("1-900-Lucky" - 2007)
  The Wire ("Margin Of Error" - 2006)
  Entourage ("The Bat Mitzvah" - 2005)
  The Simpsons ("Brawl In The Family" - 2002)
  Gilmore Girls ("Kill Me Now" - 2000)
  The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air ("Christmas Show" - 1991, "There's The Rub: Part 2" - 1995)
  
  And in these movies:
  
  Bridget Jones's Baby (2016)
  My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)
  Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (2011)
  You Again (2010)
  Mission: Impossible III (2006)
  Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)
  The Full Monty (1997)
  The Birdcage (1996)
  Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit (1993)
• Bernard Edwards went on to produce The Power Station and was recognized as one of the great bass players of the disco era. He died of pneumonia in 1996 at age 43.
  
  Nile Rodgers produced David Bowie's Let's Dance and Madonna's Like A Virgin albums, and worked on Daft Punk's 2013 smash "Get Lucky."
• The all-girl rock group Babes in Toyland released a popular cover of this song in 1995. The Spice Girls often performed the song live, and a version from 1998 recorded at Wembley Stadium was released on various compilations.
• In 2001, Nile Rodgers produced a new version of this song featuring Britney Spears, Steven Tyler, 'N Sync, Run-D.M.C., Busta Rhymes, Kevin Bacon, Joan Rivers and Vanessa Williams along with Sister Sledge. Proceeds went to help families of victims of the terrorist attacks on America. Spike Lee shot the video for the new version.
• In 2003, Joe Lieberman used this as his campaign song when he started running for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. He was trying to push the message that he could unite the Democrats and win the election. John Kerry ended up getting the nomination.
• Nile Rodgers considers the We Are Family album the best he's ever made. He told Billboard magazine in 2017: "That was the record that proved we could do what we do for ourselves for others, that we could look inside someone's soul and put our version of their truth onto them and superimpose it onto them and create this new entity we believed we understood. There's no filler on Sister Sledge; every song is awesome. It was a record that was really incredible to us."
• Among the many songs Nile Rodgers has written, "Le Freak" is his best seller but "We Are Family" is the most popular, thanks to constant use in movies, TV, and other media. Rodgers estimates that one quarter of his songwriting royalties come from the song.
• There was some family discord that started in 2013 when Kathy Sledge was sued by her sisters for using the name "Sister Sledge" during solo performances. During this time, Debbie Sledge led the group, performing live with various other family members, as she controlled the trademark and website.
  
  Kathy Sledge left the group in the late '80s and launched a solo career; the group released several albums without her.