Chic

This article is about the American band Chic . The Australian car brand of the same name can be found under Chic Cars .

Chic
General information
Genre (s)	Disco
founding	1977
Founding members
bass	Bernard Edwards
guitar	Nile Rodgers
Drums	Tony Thompson
singing	Norma-Jean Wright
Current occupation
guitar	Nile Rodgers
singing	Kimberly Davis
singing	Folami
Keyboard , vocals	Cherie Mitchell
Drums	Omar Hakim
saxophone	Bill Holloman
Trumpet	Mac Gollehon
Trumpet	Curt Ramm
Percussion	Gerardo Velez
Keyboard	Richard Hilton
bass	Jerry Barnes
bass	Barry Johnson

Chic is an African American band that was founded in New York in 1977 by bassist Bernard Edwards and guitarist Nile Rodgers and had a significant influence on pop and disco music of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Her biggest hit, Le Freak, is the most successful single in Atlantic Records history with over seven million units sold .

Music genre

Chic's distinctive and unmistakable style of music contains elements of jazz , rhythm and blues as well as rock 'n' roll and thus describes the lifestyle of the up-and-coming Afro-American educated bourgeoisie in the USA in the late 1970s. With the title Chic Mystique the band characterizes their style: “ … a force that's driving, there is no surviving, bass and rhythm makes you move, get into a chic groove! ”.

history

1976-1989

After studying music and working as a guitarist in the house orchestra of the New York Apollo Theater , Rodgers initially played in various formations with his friend, bassist Bernard Edwards. In 1976 they formed an initially nameless studio band with drummer Tony Thompson and singer Norma Jean Wright and produced the song Everybody Dance independently . When, in 1977, a disc jockey friend of mine played the previously unreleased demo tape late in the evening at the New York nightclub Night Owl , the already tired audience stormed onto the dance floor again and demanded constant repetitions. When he was hastily summoned, Rodgers was impressed by the great impact of his music. The sight of the elegantly and fashionably dressed guests inspired the band name Chic. The record company WEA Records took Chic under contract .

The first album Chic was released at the end of 1977 . The title Dance, Dance, Dance included on it reached number 6 on the US Billboard charts with its staccato-like bass line . In an interview with Rolling Stone in the mid-1980s, Nile Rodgers said he happened to hear the song Daddy Cool by Boney M in 1976 and was surprised that the producer was not an African American , but rather the completely unknown German producer Frank Farian , and who, with Daddy Cool, was doing about the music Rodgers and Edwards had dreamed of for years.

On New Year's Eve 1977 Rodgers and Edwards had an appointment with the singer Grace Jones in the New York discotheque Studio 54 . The bouncer at the backstage door didn't believe them and twice rejected them with the words Fuck off . Annoyed, they returned to Rodger's apartment, which was just around the corner, and responded to their frustration by spontaneously jamming , singing the curse Fuck off - Fuck Studio 54 to a riff . Since they liked the spontaneous sound and melody immediately, they changed the vulgar lyrics and Fuck off - Fuck Studio 54 became Ah, freak out - Le freak, c'est chic . The title was finally called Le Freak and became Chics' biggest hit. In the lyrics there is also the line “ just come on down to 54, find a spot out on the floor ”. After its release in September 1978, the song reached number 1 in many countries and is to this day, 29 years after its release (July 2007), the best-selling single of the record company WEA Records .

In 1978 Norma Jean Wright left the band and pursued a solo career. Her first solo LP Norma Jean was released in 1978, was produced by Rodgers and Edwards, and contained the hit Saturday . Luci Martin and Alfa Anderson, who had previously worked with Luther Vandross and who came to the band through him, took their place. In September of the same year, the single Le Freak was released , with which the band achieved world fame. The song Good Times also reached the top of the US charts in the summer of 1979 and is one of the most commercially successful singles by African American artists in the United States .

Edwards and Rodgers were already active as producers when they were active musicians. They wrote and produced hits such as We Are Family and He's the Greatest Dancer for the vocal quintet Sister Sledge , Upside Down and I'm Coming Out for Diana Ross and the solo album KooKoo for Debbie Harry . When the disco wave subsided in the early 1980s, the band broke up. Rodgers continued to work as a music producer, promoting the careers of young, emerging artists such as Madonna and Duran Duran at the time . Established greats such as David Bowie ( Let's Dance and China Girl ), Sheena Easton and Grace Jones asked him into the studio. Edwards worked as a producer for the band Power Station .

1990-2013

At the beginning of the 1990s, the band found together again with a different line-up for the production of the album Chic-ism , but could no longer build on previous successes. During a tour of Asia in 1996, Bernard Edwards died of pneumonia after a concert in Tokyo . Tony Thompson died of a November 2003 of cancer .

Some music critics compare the musical and creative partnership of Rodgers and Edwards to that of John Lennon and Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger and Keith Richards . In 2005 the group was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame . In 2007 and 2014 Chic was part of the Night of the Proms concert series .

In 2013 the band performed at the Glastonbury Festival and the iTunes Festival in London .

In June 2018, Rodgers announced the first new Chic album in 26 years. It's About Time was out on September 28th. Bruno Mars , Haim , Debbie Harry and Anderson .Paak were confirmed as guests . On June 12, 2018, Chic played the single Boogie All Night live on the British television show Later with Jools Holland .

Cover versions of chic songs

The English rock band Queen built their hit Another One Bites the Dust (1980) on the characteristic Good Times bass line . Rapper's Delight , published that same year by the Sugar Hill Gang , was a rap version of Good Times . The track Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (1982) by the New York New Wave band Indeep also made use of the Good Times bassline .

On November 14, 2000, the French group Modjo released a single under the name Lady (Hear Me Tonight) . The title of the same name Lady , which at times reached the first chart position in England and Switzerland, is a remix of the chic song Soup for One from 1982.

The song Ein Jahr (It goes ahead) , a top 10 hit in Germany and the only big hit by Fehlfarben , is based on a riff adapted from a chic song.

Discography

→ Main article : Chic / discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)						Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US	R&B
1978	Chic	-	-	-	-	US27 gold (40 weeks)US	R&B12 (31 weeks) R&B	First published: December 1977 Co-producer: Kenny Lehman
	C'est chic	DE10 (21 weeks) DE	AT21 (12 weeks) AT	-	UK2 gold (24 weeks)UK	US4th platinum (48 weeks)US	R&B1 (38 weeks) R&B	First published: November 1978 Co-producers: Mark Kreiner, Tom Cossie
1979	Risqué	-	-	-	UK29 silver (12 weeks)UK	US5 platinum (17 weeks)US	R&B2 (17 weeks) R&B	First published: August 1979
1980	Real People	-	-	-	-	US30 (15 weeks) US	R&B8 (19 weeks) R&B	First published: July 1980 Recording: Power Station Studio, New York
1982	Take it off	-	-	-	-	US124 (9 weeks) US	R&B36 (14 weeks) R&B	First published: December 1981
	Tongue in chic	-	-	-	-	US173 (6 weeks) US	R&B47 (9 weeks) R&B	First published: November 1982
1992	Chicism	DE55 (7 weeks) DE	-	CH40 (1 week) CH	-	-	R&B39 (17 weeks) R&B	First published: March 1992
2018	It's about time	DE72 (1 week) DE	-	CH28 (1 week) CH	UK10 (1 week) UK	-	-	First published: September 28, 2018 with Nile Rodgers

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• 1983: Believer

swell

1. ↑ nilerodgers.com
2. ↑ Nile Rodgers. In: Nile Rodgers - From Disco to Daft Punk , documentary by Julie Veille and Marjory Déjardin, ARTE France, 2015
3. ↑ release date Le Freak
4. ↑ LP info and biography, Discogs
5. ↑ Chic release first new album in 26 years - ByteFM Blog. Accessed June 14, 2018 (German). 
6. ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
7. ^ The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
8. ^ Joel Whitburn : Top R&B Albums 1965–1998, ISBN 0-89820-134-9 .

Web links

• Chic at Allmusic (English)
• Chic at Discogs (English)
• Official website of Nile Rodgers
• Fansite
• Biography / Discography at Disco Savvy (English)
• Discography at 45cat.com