"Stoned Soul Picnic" is a 1968 song by Laura Nyro. The best-known version of the song was recorded by the 5th Dimension, and was the first single released from their album of the same title. It was the most successful single from that album, reaching No. 3 on the U.S. Pop chartWhitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 222. and No. 2 on the Billboard R&B chart. It became a platinum record.
The song was composed and recorded by Nyro for her album Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, released in March 1968. According to Marilyn McCoo, it was producer Bones Howe who suggested that it would be a good song for the 5th Dimension to cover. The group would go on to record several more hits with Nyro songs, including "Sweet Blindness", "Wedding Bell Blues", "Blowin' Away", and "Save the Country".
An instrumental version was recorded by jazz vibraphonist Roy Ayers and became the title track to his 1968 album.
The word surry, used frequently in the lyric (e.g. "Surry down to a stoned soul picnic"), is a neologism by Nyro; its meaning is unclear. When producer Charlie Calello asked what the word meant, Nyro told him, "Oh, it's just a nice word." Possible origins include: slurry as in mining, a wash of sediment that flows down from an excavation site. contraction of let's hurry. surrey. a type of horse-drawn carriage popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as popularized in the musical Oklahoma! with the song "Surrey with the fringe on top"; a way of getting to the picnic.
Personnel Billy Davis Jr. Florence LaRue Marilyn McCoo Lamonte McLemore Ron Townson
Additional personnel
Mike Deasy – electric guitar Joe Osborn – bass Hal Blaine – drums, percussion Larry Bunker – percussion Larry Knechtel – piano Jimmy Rowles – organ The Sid Sharp Strings – string section The Bill Holman Brass – horn section
Chart history
Weekly charts Chart (1968)PeakpositionCanada RPM Top Singles3U.S. Billboard Hot 100Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 – 3U.S. Billboard R&B Singles2U.S. Cash Box Top 100Cash Box Top 100 Singles, August 17, 19686
Year-end charts Chart (1968)RankCanada28U.S. Billboard Hot 100Musicoutfitters.com17U.S. Billboard R&B32U.S. Cash BoxCash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 28, 196829
Certifications
Sampling and covers "Stoned Soul Picnic" has been covered by: Julie London on Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, 1969 British pop group Swing Out Sister on Shapes and Patterns, 1997 Afro-Celtic artist Laura Love on Fourteen Days, 2000 Jill Sobule as a single, 2001 British jazz singer Claire Teal on Don't Talk, 2004 the New York Voices on A Day Like This, 2007 Billy Childs on Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro, sung by Ledisi, 2014
It has also been sampled by: Crystal Waters in "Ghetto Day" on Storyteller, 1994 Australian electronic duo Madison Avenue in "Edible French Chic" on The Polyester Embassy, 2000 The Go! Team in "Everyone's a V.I.P. to Someone" on their debut album Thunder, Lightning, Strike, 2004
Chicano Batman has a song with the same title on their 2014 album Cycles Of Existential Rhyme.
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