"Masterminded by the producer/songwriter team of Nile Rodgers and Bernard
Edwards, and inspired by Roxy Music's stage act mixing smart-looking men
with sophisticated ladies, Chic emerged as the most successful and
musically qualified disco band of the era. Like an expensive, silky
evening garment, their music seduced you with sensuous, luxurious layers,
all cunningly designed and carefully arranged..."
- Saturday Night Forever: The Story of Disco by Alan Jones and
Jussi Kantonen (Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1999), page 127
"Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, the writers/producers/players behind
Chic and Sister Sledge, are one of the hottest production teams in the
music business.... Unlike many disco producers who started out as deejays,
Edwards and Rodgers owe their phenomenal success largely to their prowess and
experience as musicians.... They merge a loose and funkily precise rhythm
section with stately strings and graceful female voices. This is the Chic
production concept that has spun gold for all concerned."
- "DISCOTECH II: The Producer is the Star" by Crispin Cioe, in High
Fidelity Magazine (September 1979): 136-139.
"...behind the lush string orchestrations and colorful polymelodies lies
a raunchy pulse, a pulse that comes from the street, a gut-level instinct
not necessarily sexual but raw and stripped of any phony trappings. That's
why 'Good Times' had such broad appeal. The lyrics were easy and catchy
(and ambiguous), but it was the music: that bass line like a jungle
drum, that handclap like a heartbeat lifeline, allowing everyone to pour out
their troubles on the dance floor."
- Barry Cooper, in New York Rocker (1980).
"Chic truly lived up to its name with sophisticated, silky records like 'I
Want Your Love' (1979) and 'Good Times.' The opening of 'I Want Your
Love,' with its majestic bells, is one of the great moments in disco."
- "Disco Fever: The Trammps' Earl Young remembers" by Patricia Romano,
in Arizona Style (Summer 1995).
Classic Songs:
1977: Dance Dance Dance, Everybody Dance, Strike Up the Band
1978: Chic Cheer, Le Freak, I Want Your Love, Savoir Faire
1979: Good Times, My Forbidden Lover, My Feet Keep Dancing
1980: Real People, Chip off the Old Block
1981: Just Out of Reach, Stage Fright
1982: Hangin'
1983: You Are Beautiful
1992: Chic Mystique, High, Your Love, One and Only One
2015: I'll Be There
2018: Till the World Falls, Sober
Albums:
"This is a diverse set from the group which has a major disco hit with
'Dance, Dance Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah).' That good timey cut is
included, along with several less gimmicky tracks which could move the
group strongly from its disco base into pop, soul and MOR radio formats.
These include a super-sexy Diana Ross-styled vocal number, a male vocal
cut with good r&b possibilities and a flowing, melodic Brazilian-flavored
instrumental. Excellent string arrangements throughout. Best cuts: 'Dance,
Dance, Dance,' 'Sao Paulo,' 'You Can Get By,' 'Falling In Love With You.'"
- Billboard
Magazine (week ending December 10, 1977)
Billboard chart positions in the USA:
"...the sound of the greatest party imaginable, and spelt glamour, sex
with unthinkably beautiful people, fancy cocktails and always getting
past the doorman...
["C'est Chic" featured] imperious classics..."
- Q
Magazine (September 1999): page 136
"...Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, another top R&B-disco
production/writing team, seem more like minimalistic aural interior
decorators than songwriters. C'est Chic perfected their polished signature
sound, which echoes Thom Bell's classic Spinners discs. Voices and strings
hang like a satin backdrop behind Edwards' elegantly defined bass and
Rodgers' scrubby guitar..."
-
Stephen Holden, Rolling Stone Magazine
"Although 'Le Freak,' already a disco, soul and Top 40 hit, is the
standout cut of the eight songs offered, the band proves it is able to
work in styles other than disco. 'Savoir Faire' features some nimble
guitar work reminiscent of George Benson and 'At Last I'm Free' is a
straightforward soul ballad. The rest is disco saved from being run of the
mill by the vocals of Alfa Anderson, Bernard Edwards, Diva Gray, Luci
Martin, David Lasley and Luther Vandross. Best cuts: 'Le Freak,' 'Happy
Man,' 'Chic Cheer,' 'Savoir Faire.'"
- Billboard
Magazine (week ending November 25, 1978)
"Le Freak" is the theme song of the 2003 American movie "Freaky Friday". It was also included on the soundtrack to the 2005 American movie "Roll Bounce".
Billboard chart positions in the USA:
"As with most soul music, there was little lyrical depth to the Chic
songs. They dwelt on love and having a good time. It is rather the mood
that was magical. Songs like Good Times, Chic Cheer, and Le Freak, even
though they were the bigger hits, have the coarse, brash tone of funk all
over them. Good Times, eight weeks at number one in America, went on to
become the best-selling record ever on the Atlantic label, with 6m copies
worldwide; it also became the most sampled or copied song of all-time."
- The Sunday
Monitor (Kampala Uganda, Sunday, July 18, 1999): Arts and Entertainment section
"Chic's third album is a stunning showcase for the work of Rodgers and
Edwards, who are fast proving themselves as consummate craftsmen in the
classic pop tradition of Phil Spector and Holland/Dozier/Holland. Apart
from writing, arranging and producing everything here, they provide a
rock-solid musical foundation (with Rodgers' mesmerizing rhythm guitar and
Edwards' fluid bass lines) upon which the drums, strings and
vocals -- soulfully handled by Alfa Anderson and Luci Martin -- are built.
The result is the crisp, economic and instantly identifiable sound that's
exemplified by 'Good Times,' already a major hit, and 'Forbidden Lover.'
And then there's the ultimate disco anthem, 'My Feet Keep Dancing,' a
masterpiece of constructive repetition, with layers of sound adding
texture as the tune unwinds. Best cuts: 'Good Times,' 'My Forbidden
Lover,' 'My Feet Keep Dancing,' 'What About Me.'"
- Billboard
Magazine (week ending August 11, 1979)
"Chic sports a durable and optimistic signature sound that, unlike much of
what is commonly heard in discos, does not intimidate with electronic
calisthenics. The single Good Times grips, but does not assault, with
crisp, potent hand claps, propelling guitar work, and a string section
that neatly slices the song into sections.... A Warm Summer Night is a
mindless ballad that suffers from bland eroticism, while Forbidden Lover
is driven by bright, snappy vocals and a persistent, prominently defined
rhythmic line. Sophisticated funk is paired with an aggressive,
hard-hitting handling of lyrics on Can't Stand To Love Ya. Anderson's
intensely dramatic attitude on Will You Cry is inappropriate, but the
achingly simple What About Me takes on vibrancy and sincerity...."
- Christopher
Petkanas, High Fidelity Magazine (October 1979)
Billboard chart positions in the USA:
A segment of "My Feet Keep Dancing" features the tap dancing of Fayard Nicholas and Eugene Jackson.
Here is a video clip from Chic's performance of "My Forbidden Lover" on BBC's Top of the Pops in December 1979.
"Real People" reached #79 Pop in the USA, while "Rebels are We" reached #61 Pop and #8 R&B in the USA.
"Real People, Chic's fifth album, pales by comparison [to Diana Ross'
1980 album 'diana']. Neither Alfa Anderson nor Luci Martin can match
Ross' buoyancy, and there isn't a single cut as compelling as last
summer's 'Good Times.' Still, Real People has its highlights. 'Open Up,'
an instrumental, sets a Gershwin-like orchestral fragment to the same
stop-start format that runs through Diana. 'Rebels Are We' is typically
tongue in Chic, with its syntactic inversion of the title phrase intoned
by a chorus that sounds about as rebellious as a bunch of mannequins.
Generally, however, the group's blasé irony has turned rancid. 'I
Got Protection,' which compares love to VD, and '26,' a sendup of the Bo
Derek rating system, manage to be snide without being
catchy."
-
Stephen Holden, Rolling Stone Magazine (1980)
"...Take It Off is stripped-down Chic: no strings, and the
occasional horns are lean and more up front. The strongest dance numbers
lead off the album. 'Stage Fright' is the latest development of the famous
Chic stutter dynamics, BERNARD EDWARDS... [lets] his fingers do the
walking and your rhythm imagination the rest... TONY THOMPSON's drumming
is rock solid but full of little slippery surprises. LUCI MARTIN and ALFA
ANDERSON are at the top of their voices, delivering with precision,
enunciating on the beat, harmonizing with a perfect hard-edged interval...
'Flash Back' is a wonderful dub ballad most sensitively and soulfully sung
by Bernard over a spare track that's mainly his perfect lovequake bass,
with some very grand piano touches and a lovely soul powered Luci and Alfa
chorus... 'Your Love Is Cancelled' is bopping, stop-start-stop-pop... It's
a Chic version of bubble gum... 'Would You Be My Baby' is a great ladies'
torch tune, sexy, teased and teasing... 'Take It Off' is a modified disco
beat stomp, more straight ahead than the usual Chic dance tune
arrangement: wise and word-wise, getting directly to the point... this
tune has superior horn lines, here stripped down sections of funk
punctuation... 'Baby Doll' is a cool, sophisticated soul bop anthem
instrumental.... And while they do what they're best known for superbly,
that is, make dance music that's highly contagious, Chic takes this
opportunity to show that they do everything else as well. They rock, they
bop, they do the jazz and the funky Chic one, they make jungle music for
Park Avenue and cool jazz for the jungle and everything good in between. A
winner and still champ."
-
Glenn O'Brien, Interview Magazine (February 1982): page 72
Here is a clip from the video for "Hangin'".
"Now that Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards are working day jobs --
cutting first-rate solo LPs and producing other artists -- their
contributions to the mother ship are beginning to falter. Try as we may,
it's hard to believe in as average a record as Believer (Atlantic) -- or
in the band's long-term
future..."
-
Playboy (April 1984): page 31
"You are Beautiful" is included as track number 9 on the multi-artist compilation album Funky Collector Volume 2.
"Nine years after their breakup, and with two new singers, Rodgers and
Edwards aim to re-create the magic on Chic-ism, and nearly succeed. A few
tacked-on raps are superfluous, and the title track is a throwaway bit of
grandstanding. But songs like the elegant club hit 'Chic Mystique' revive
the nightlife vibe -- complete with real live orchestration -- and make
it funkier for the '90s."
- David Browne, Entertainment Weekly (1992)
"...a luscious mix of sophisticated soul and haunting street beats... an
irresistable, eclectic sound..."
- Rolling Stone (March 19, 1992): page 89
"...refreshingly sophisticated... musically complete... ballads better
than Whitney, house hipper than C&C Music Factory, and funk fatter than
the Brand New Heavies..."
- Spin (May 1992): page 80
"...sounds like they never went away at all..."
- Q Magazine (April 1992): page 72
"It's as if the good times never left, as founding fathers Edwards and
Rodgers (with new female vocalists Sylver Logan Sharp and Jenn Thomas in
tow) assert some retrofunkification on reunion set. Grooves may sound
anachronistic to some, but those who recall the late-'70s/early-'80s hits
of the original Chic alignment will probably eat it up. Self-mythologizing
'Chic Mystique' and ballad 'My Love's For Real' stand out in the pack."
- Billboard
Magazine (week ending March 14, 1992)
Chic Compilations:
Covers of Chic Songs:
Chic-Influenced Songs:
Books about Chic:
ALBUM TITLE | Merchant 1 | Merchant 2 | Merchant 3 | Merchant 4 | Merchant 5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chic | Amazon.com | Deep Discount | Juno Records | |||
C'est Chic | Amazon.com | Juno Records | ||||
Risque | Amazon.com | Juno Records | ||||
Real People | Amazon.com | |||||
Tongue in Chic | Amazon.com | |||||
Chic-ism | Amazon.com | |||||
It's About Time | Amazon.com | Juno Records | ||||
The Very Best of Chic | Amazon.com |
Related links:
Other Chic, Nile, and Bernard sites
Index
Related artists and bands