The Family That Plays Together
by Spirit

The Family That Plays Together by Spirit
Year: 1968
Release date: 1968-12-00
Overall rank: 4,977th   Overall chart history
Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 90 votes)
  Ratings distribution   Average rating history
Accolades:
Award Top albums of 1968 (68th)
Award Top albums of of the 1960s (395th)
Award Best albums of all time (4,977th)

Listen on Spotify SPOTIFY
Product Details
Availability

eBay
eBay
SPIRIT The Family That Plays Together & Spirit
Condition: Very Good


eBay
eBay
The Family That Plays Together Spirit AFZ – 260 Audio Fidelity CD
Condition: Very Good


eBay
eBay
SPIRIT - The Family That Plays Together (1968) - 12" Vinyl Record LP - VG+
Condition: Used


  My favourite store:  

Spirit bestography

The Family That Plays Together is ranked 3rd best out of 25 albums by Spirit on BestEverAlbums.com.

The best album by Spirit is Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus which is ranked number 2123 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 785.

Spirit album bestography « Higher ranked (4,355th)
Spirit
This album (4,977th)
The Family That Plays Together
Lower ranked (12,883rd) »
Clear

(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).

Listen to The Family That Plays Together on YouTube

Loading content from YouTube...

The Family That Plays Together track list

  Track ratings The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).

Sort Sort by

The Family That Plays Together rankings

Rankings summary
Overall rank: 4,977th | 1960s rank: 395th | 1968 rank: 68th

The Family That Plays Together collection

The Family That Plays Together ratings

Average Rating: 
77/100 (from 90 votes)
  Ratings distribution Help Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AV
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.

Showing latest 5 ratings for this album.  | Show all 90 ratings for this album.

Sort Sort by
RatingDate updatedMemberAlbum ratingsAvg. album rating
 
75/100
 !
05/09/2026 17:44 BrunoDMartins  Ratings distribution  2,23676/100
 
60/100
 !
04/26/2026 07:39 Olli  Ratings distribution  7,36862/100
 
90/100
 !
02/05/2026 12:15 Philly28  Ratings distribution  94969/100
 
60/100
 !
11/24/2025 16:21 EyeKanFly  Ratings distribution  8,75665/100
 
90/100
 !
12/11/2024 03:17 Tony58  Ratings distribution  74472/100

Rating metrics: Help Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)

This album is rated in the top 3% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.8/100, a mean average of 76.8/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 77.4/100. The standard deviation for this album is 11.7.

Please log in or register if you want to be able to leave a rating

The Family That Plays Together favourites

Showing all 10 members who have added this album as a favourite

The Family That Plays Together comments

Showing all 4 comments |
Most Helpful First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Only showing comments with -2 votes or higher. You can alter this threshold from your profile page. Manage Profile)

Rating:  
75/100
From 01/30/2023 12:13 | #293409 | TOP COMMENT
Some of the recording quality things on this album restrained my feelings at first listening, but this album has got many possibilities to reveal its secrets. A true psychedelic-era classic. Criminally underrated and known among the basic music-playing stations and DJs altogether.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | 0 votes (0 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
80/100
From 09/26/2017 20:36 | #198776 | TOP COMMENT
This album must have sounded years ahead of its time when it came out in 68. After the brilliant upbeat opener, 'It Shall Be' is a much more deep and soulful track which then moves seamlessly into Fresh Garbage, upbeat and original. The strings created on the album sound like something from a Prophet Five, a synth which hadn't been invented in 68! 'Drunkard' has it all, cellos, flute, possibly a string quartet to boot! One of those albums where you hear more with each listen.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
90/100
From 10/01/2014 15:16 | #123110 | TOP COMMENT
Best album of the band with "Spirit" (1968) and the psychedelic "Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" (1970). The Spirit style is a mixture of rock, blues, jazz but especially psychedelic and early progressive rock. In brief, delightful melodies and very influent work!
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +1 votes (1 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Rating:  
75/100
From 08/14/2012 19:11 | #48556 | TOP COMMENT
Solid psychedelic rock. “I Got a Line on You” is one of the great songs of the era—of any era.
Helpful?  (Log in to vote) | +2 votes (2 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
Please log in or register if you want to be able to add a comment

Your feedback for The Family That Plays Together

Anonymous
Let us know what you think of this album by adding a comment or assigning a rating below.
The top comments are featured on our aggregated charts!
Log in or create a FREE account to assign a rating or leave a comment for this album.