The Great 70s

Chic

Chic (pron. "sheek") is an American disco and R&B band that was formed in 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. It is best-known for its commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" (1977), "Everybody Dance" (1977), "Le Freak" (1978), "I Want Your Love" (1978), "Good Times" (1979), and "My Forbidden Lover" (1979). Chic has recently been nominated for possible 2009 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards met in 1970, as fellow session musicians working around the New York City circuit. They formed a rock band called The Boys and later The Big Apple Band, playing numerous gigs around New York City. But despite interest in their demos, they could not get a record contract, possibly in part because music companies of the time didn't believe that black artists could create sellable rock music.

In 1977, Edwards and Rodgers had former LaBelle and Ecstasy, Passion, & Pain drummer Tony Thompson join the band, performing as a trio doing covers at various gigs. Needing a singer to become a full band, they engaged Norma Jean Wright under an agreement that she wanted to have a dual career between the band and her solo career. Using a young recording engineer Bob Clearmountain, they created a demo tape which included the tracks "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and "Everybody Dance," which sent the renamed Chic out on the road as a support act. ("Everybody Dance" was later covered by famous Drag Queen RuPaul on his 1st album in the early 90's)

Now signed to Atlantic Records, in 1977 they released the self-titled debut album Chic which was an extension of the demo tape. But Edwards and Rogers were now convinced that to replicate the bands recording studio sound live in sound and visuals, they needed to add another female singer to front the band. Wright suggested her friend Luci Martin, who became a member in late winter/early spring of 1978.

Right after the sessions ended for its debut album, the band members began to work on Wright's self-titled debut solo album Norma Jean, released in 1978. This album contained club hit "Saturday." To facilitate Wright's solo career, intended to be parallel to her Chic career, the band had agreed to sign her to a separate contract and label. Unfortunately the legalities of this contract eventually forced Wright to leave the band in mid-1978, but not before she took part in the sessions for Chic-produced Sister Sledge album We Are Family. She was replaced by Alfa Anderson, who had been on back up vocals on the band’s debut album. For the Sister Sledge project, Edwards and Rogers wrote and produced "He's the Greatest Dancer" (originally intended to be a Chic song) in exchange for "I Want Your Love" (originally intended to be performed by Sister Sledge).

In late 1978, the band released C'est Chic, containing one of its best-known tracks, "Le Freak." Created from a champagne-fuelled jam session in Edwards apartment, after they had failed on New Years Eve to meet with Grace Jones at New York's exclusive nightclub Studio 54. The original hook line "Aaa, fuck off" aimed at the door men at Studio 54, was replaced that night with "Aaa, freak out" after trying a version with "Aaa, freak off."[2] The resultant single was a massive success, topping the US charts and selling over 6 million copies. It was the biggest-ever selling single ever of Atlantic's parent company, Warner Music, until replaced by Madonna's Vogue in 1990.

The following year, the group released the Risqué album and the lead track "Good Times," one of the most important and influential songs of the era. The track formed the backbone of Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel" and the Sugarhill Gang's breakthrough hip-hop single, "Rapper's Delight", and it has been endlessly sampled since by many dance and hip-hop acts, as well as being the inspiration for Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" and also Blondie's "Rapture" also for the bass line of Daft Punk "Around the World".

At the same time, Edwards and Rodgers composed, arranged, performed, and produced many influential disco and R&B records for both established artists and one-hit wonders, including Sister Sledge's albums We Are Family (1979) and Love Somebody Today (1980); Sheila and B. Devotion's "Spacer"; Diana Ross's 1980 album diana, which included the hit singles "Upside Down", "I'm Coming Out" and "My Old Piano"; Carly Simon's "Why" (from 1982 soundtrack Soup For One); and Deborah Harry's debut solo album.

Chic also helped introduce the world to an up-and-coming young vocalist named Luther Vandross, who sang on several of Chic's albums, and helped define the distinctive vocal style of Chic. That style he used on his big breakthrough, the disco band Change's debut album "The Glow of Love" in 1980.

Wikipedia contributors. Chic (band). Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. December 8, 2008, 01:04 UTC. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chic_(band)&oldid=256527748. Accessed December 21, 2008.