Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
E292567
"Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" is a landmark 1972 soul and psychedelic funk song, renowned for its extended instrumental intro and socially conscious lyrics, that became one of The Temptations' most acclaimed and influential hits.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Papa Was a Rollin' Stone canonical | 12 |
| Papa Was a Rollin' Stone (cover) | 2 |
| Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone | 2 |
| Papa Was a Rollin' Stone (The Temptations version) | 1 |
| Papa Was a Rolling Stone | 1 |
| “Papa Was a Rolling Stone” | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2731741 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone Context triple: [The Temptations, notableWork, Papa Was a Rollin' Stone]
-
A.
Let’s Roll
"Let’s Roll" is a blues and soul album by legendary American singer Etta James, showcasing her powerful vocals in a contemporary, guitar-driven setting.
-
B.
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a groundbreaking 1965 funk song by James Brown that is widely credited with helping to define the funk genre and reshape popular music.
-
C.
Like a Rolling Stone
"Like a Rolling Stone" is a landmark 1965 rock song by Bob Dylan, widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential songs in popular music history.
-
D.
Mama Said
"Mama Said" is a 1991 rock album by American musician Lenny Kravitz that blends classic rock, soul, and funk influences and includes the hit single "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over."
-
E.
Mama Tried
"Mama Tried" is a classic 1968 country song by Merle Haggard that reflects on regret and personal responsibility from the perspective of an imprisoned man.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone Target entity description: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" is a landmark 1972 soul and psychedelic funk song, renowned for its extended instrumental intro and socially conscious lyrics, that became one of The Temptations' most acclaimed and influential hits.
-
A.
Let’s Roll
"Let’s Roll" is a blues and soul album by legendary American singer Etta James, showcasing her powerful vocals in a contemporary, guitar-driven setting.
-
B.
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag
"Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" is a groundbreaking 1965 funk song by James Brown that is widely credited with helping to define the funk genre and reshape popular music.
-
C.
Like a Rolling Stone
"Like a Rolling Stone" is a landmark 1965 rock song by Bob Dylan, widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential songs in popular music history.
-
D.
Mama Said
"Mama Said" is a 1991 rock album by American musician Lenny Kravitz that blends classic rock, soul, and funk influences and includes the hit single "It Ain't Over 'til It's Over."
-
E.
Mama Tried
"Mama Tried" is a classic 1968 country song by Merle Haggard that reflects on regret and personal responsibility from the perspective of an imprisoned man.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
single
ⓘ
song ⓘ |
| album | All Directions ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
Grammy Award for Best R&B Instrumental Performance
ⓘ
Grammy Award for Best R&B Song ⓘ Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus ⓘ |
| bSide | Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On ⓘ |
| chartPosition |
number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100
ⓘ
number 5 on the Billboard R&B chart ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| genre |
funk
ⓘ
psychedelic funk ⓘ soul ⓘ |
| hasInstrumentation |
brass section
ⓘ
orchestral strings ⓘ percussion ⓘ prominent bass line ⓘ wah-wah guitar ⓘ |
| hasVersion |
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone (The Temptations version)
ⓘ
linked to:
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
|
| influenced |
funk music
ⓘ
later soul music ⓘ psychedelic soul ⓘ |
| isPartOf |
The Temptations discography
ⓘ
linked to:
The Temptations
|
| language | English ⓘ |
| length |
12:00
ⓘ
6:58 ⓘ |
| notableFeature |
extended instrumental introduction
ⓘ
socially conscious lyrics ⓘ |
| notableFor |
being considered a landmark of 1970s soul music
ⓘ
being one of The Temptations' most acclaimed hits ⓘ |
| originalPerformer | The Undisputed Truth ⓘ |
| originalReleaseDate | 1972-05-09 ⓘ |
| performer | The Temptations ⓘ |
| producer | Norman Whitfield ⓘ |
| recordedBy | The Temptations ⓘ |
| recordedIn |
Detroit
ⓘ
Motown Recording Studios ⓘ
linked to:
Motown Recording Studios, Los Angeles
|
| recordLabel |
Gordy
ⓘ
Motown ⓘ |
| releaseFormat |
7-inch single
ⓘ
album track ⓘ |
| releaseYear | 1972 ⓘ |
| theme |
absent father
ⓘ
family struggle ⓘ poverty ⓘ |
| vocalStyle |
group vocals
ⓘ
spoken-style narrative passages ⓘ |
| writer |
Barrett Strong
ⓘ
Norman Whitfield ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone Description of subject: "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" is a landmark 1972 soul and psychedelic funk song, renowned for its extended instrumental intro and socially conscious lyrics, that became one of The Temptations' most acclaimed and influential hits.
Referenced by (19)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
linked to: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
linked to: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
linked to: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
subject linked to:
album "Very Greasy"
linked to: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
linked to: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone
linked to: Papa Was a Rollin' Stone