Rewind to the late 1970s, when glitzy nightclubs like New York’s Studio 54 were at the heart of the disco craze! A new band rose to fame, creating dance floor classics that quickly became mainstays of DJ playlists everywhere. That band was the disco-funk group Chic, founded by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.
Fun fact: Chic’s founders wrote their famous disco anthem, “Le Freak,” after being turned away from Studio 54. One night, Grace Jones had invited the duo to the club herself, but the doorman wouldn’t let them in. Frustrated, they improvised a song using the bouncer’s words, “f*** off,” as a refrain. To make the song more radio-friendly, Rodgers and Edwards later replaced this phrase with “freak out.”
Nearly 50 years later, classic Chic songs such as “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah),” “I Want Your Love,” and “Good Times” still have a large following. Recent performances at festivals like Glastonbury and Blenheim’s Nocturne Live are a testament to the group’s enduring popularity.
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards wrote music for many other prominent artists, too. Their first project was with Sister Sledge on their album “We Are Family.” The title track became the group’s signature song and an anthem for the gay community. The duo also collaborated with Diana Ross on hits such as “Upside Down” and “I’m Coming Out.”
Meanwhile, punk, new wave, and house music were about to become the next big thing. While Chic disbanded in 1983, Rodgers continued producing music for other artists. With “Let’s Dance,” he propelled David Bowie into his most commercially successful era. Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” album, also produced by Nile Rodgers, established her in her role as the “Queen of Pop.” A cooperation with Duran Duran yielded their “Notorious” album.
The 1990s then saw a brief reunion of Chic. In 1996, after a concert at Tokyo’s Budokan, Nile Rodgers’s longtime musical partner Bernard Edwards died unexpectedly. More recently, Rodgers was involved in producing Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories” album, shaping the hit singles “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself to Dance.” No Chic live performance today would be complete without these songs, along with many others resulting from Rodgers’s previous collaborations.
