| Chic |
Chic in 1979; From Left: Bernard Edwards (bass), Alfa Anderson (vocal), Luci Martin (vocal), Nile Rodgers (guitar), Tony Thompson (drums) | | Background information | | Origin | New York City, USA | | Genre(s) | R&B, Funk, Disco, Dance, Rock, Jazz, Reggae | | Years active | 1976–1983
1990–1992
1996
1998 | | Label(s) | Buddah, Atlantic, Mirage, Warner, Sumthing Else | | Members | Nile Rodgers
Sylver Logan Sharp
Jessica Wagner
Richard Hilton
Jerry Barnes
Omar Hakim
Bill Holloman
Cherie Mitchell
Gerardo Velez
Curt Ramm | | Former members | Bernard Edwards (deceased)
Alfa Anderson
Luci Martin
Tony Thompson (deceased)
Norma Jean Wright
Fonzi Thornton
Robert Sabino
Raymond Jones
Andy Schwartz
Sammy Figueroa
Michelle Cobbs
Karen Milne
Cheryl Hong
Valerie Haywood | For other uses, see Chic. Chic [IPA: ʃiːk] (often capitalised as CHIC) is an American disco/funk band that was formed in 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. They are best known for their 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). Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x678, 133 KB) Summary Front image from the CHIC Greatest Hits LP (Atlantic 1979) but in B&W. From Left: Bernard Edwards (bass), Alfa Anderson (vocal), Luci Martin (vocal), Nile Rodgers (guitar), Tony Thompson (drums) Licensing This image is of a...
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This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Rhythm and blues (or R & B) is a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Billboard magazine. ...
Funk is a distinct style of music originated by African-Americans, e. ...
Discothèque redirects here. ...
Dance music is music composed or played specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Rock and roll. ...
For other article subjects named Jazz see jazz (disambiguation). ...
Reggae is an African Caribbean style of music developed on the island of Jamaica and is closely linked to the religion Rastafarianism, though not universally popular among its members. ...
This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
While working at Kama Sutra Records, Art Kass was unhappy with the distribution deal with MGM Records and started Buddah Records around 1967. ...
Atlantic Records (Atlantic Recording Corporation) is an American record label, and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Music Group. ...
Warner Bros. ...
Sumthing Distribution is a New York based company started by Nile Rodgers that distributes recording artist and independent record labels. ...
Nile Gregory Rodgers (born September 19, 1952, in New York) is a prolific and influential musician, composer, arranger, guitarist and music producer, and co-founding member of the seminal multi-platinum hit R&B band CHIC, with influential bassist Bernard Edwards. ...
Sylver Logan Sharp has been lead vocalist with Nile Rodgers and CHIC since the early 1990s and continues to tour with them in 2006. ...
Omar Hakim (born February 12,1959 New York City) is a noted drummer in jazz, jazz fusion and pop music. ...
Bernard Edwards (1953-1996), born in Greenville, North Carolina, was a bass player and record producer, both as a member of Chic and on his own. ...
Tony Thompson (November 15, 1954 – November 12, 2003) was a session drummer with a long list of studio credits. ...
Norma Jean Wright (born in Elyria, Ohio) was the lead vocalist of the soul, R&B and disco group CHIC, from 1977 to 1978. ...
Raymond Jones is a television composer who is best known for his work on Doctor Who. ...
CHIC is an American band that was formed in 1975/1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Funk is a distinct style of music originated by African-Americans, e. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Nile Gregory Rodgers (born September 19, 1952, in New York) is a prolific and influential musician, composer, arranger, guitarist and music producer, and co-founding member of the seminal multi-platinum hit R&B band CHIC, with influential bassist Bernard Edwards. ...
Martin EB18 Bass Guitar in flight case. ...
Bernard Edwards (1953-1996), born in Greenville, North Carolina, was a bass player and record producer, both as a member of Chic and on his own. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Le Freak was a 1978 hit disco single by Chic. ...
Good Times is a song by the band CHIC, recorded for their 1979 album Risqué. In August of that year, it became the bands second #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. ...
History
1976–1978: Origins and early singers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards met in 1970. They formed a rock band called The Boys (later the Big Apple Band) and played numerous gigs around New York City, but despite interest in their demos, they could not get a record contract when the music companies discovered they were black; the discrimination of the day said black artists couldn't play "rock". This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Manifestations Slavery · Racial profiling · Lynching Hate speech · Hate crime · Hate groups Genocide · Holocaust · Pogrom Ethnocide · Ethnic cleansing · Race war Religious persecution · Gay bashing Pedophobia · Ephebiphobia Movements Discriminatory Aryanism · Neo-Nazism · Supremacism Kahanism Anti-discriminatory Abolitionism · Civil rights · Gay rights Womens/Universal suffrage · Mens rights Childrens rights · Youth...
Undeterred, in 1977 Edwards and Rodgers had former LaBelle and Ecstasy, Passion & Pain drummer Tony Thompson join the band. They performed as a trio, doing covers at various gigs for awhile. The trio needed a singer to front the band. That singer was Norma Jean Wright, who sang lead on their demotape and on all the songs on their first, self-titled album (1977). Labelle (with the b written in small caps, while the spelling LaBelle exclusivelly refers to the stage surname of the groups lead vocalist, Patti LaBelle) was an American R&B/soul group, who successfully melded dance music with funk and glam rock, resulting in such memorable songs as Lady...
Tony Thompson (November 15, 1954 – November 12, 2003) was a session drummer with a long list of studio credits. ...
In pop music a cover version is a new rendition of a previously recorded song. ...
Norma Jean Wright (born in Elyria, Ohio) was the lead vocalist of the soul, R&B and disco group CHIC, from 1977 to 1978. ...
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. ...
But before that, the immediate success of their debut album and the hits "Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and "Everybody Dance" sent Chic out on the road. They performed as a quartet until February 1978, but Rodgers and Edwards thought that their live performances would improve both in sound and visuals if they added another girl to front the band. Norma Jean suggested her friend Luci Martin, who became a member in late winter/early spring of 1978.
Right after the sessions ended for their debut album, Chic began to work on Norma Jean's self-titled debut solo album, released in 1978. This album contained club hit "Saturday". Unfortunately, to facilitate Norma Jean'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 Norma Jean 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 Chic's debut album. Sister Sledge is an American musical group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 1972 and consisting of four singers, all of whom are sisters: Kim, Debbie, Joni, and Kathy Sledge. ...
1978–1979: "Le Freak" and "Good Times" In late 1978 the band released C'est Chic, containing one of their best known tracks, "Le Freak". The famous refrain "Aaa, freak out" was originally intended to be "Aaa, fuck off", but was changed due to obvious reasons. The single was a massive success, topping the U.S. charts and selling over six million copies. It is still the biggest selling single, ever, of Atlantic's parent company Warner. Le Freak was a 1978 hit disco single by Chic. ...
For the Sister Sledge project, Chic swapped songs with "He's the Greatest Dancer" (originally intended as a Chic song) exchanging for "I Want Your Love" (originally due to be performed by Sister Sledge).
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 has been endlessly sampled since by many dance and hip hop acts and was the inspiration behind the Queen hit "Another one bites the dust". Risqué is a 1979 album by Chic. ...
Good Times is a song by the band CHIC, recorded for their 1979 album Risqué. In August of that year, it became the bands second #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100. ...
Joseph Saddler (born January 1, 1958 in Bridgetown, Barbados), better known as Grandmaster Flash, is a hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing. ...
The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for one hit, Rappers Delight, the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. ...
Rappers Delight is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang; it was one of the first hip hop hit singles. ...
Queen are an English rock band, formed in 1970 in London by Brian May, Freddie Mercury, and Roger Taylor, with John Deacon joining the following year. ...
Another One Bites the Dust is a 1980 funk/rock song from the English rock band Queen. ...
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, Sheila and B. Devotion, Diana Ross, and Debbie Harry. Rhythm and blues (or R & B) is a musical marketing term introduced in the United States in the late 1940s by Billboard magazine. ...
Sister Sledge is an American musical group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, formed in 1972 and consisting of four singers, all of whom are sisters: Kim, Debbie, Joni, and Kathy Sledge. ...
Definition 1: Sheila is the stage name of a French pop singer whose real name is Annie Chancel (she is not related to Jacques Chancel, the TV host). ...
Diana Ross (born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross[1] on March 26, 1944) is an American singer and actress, whose musical repertoire spans R&B, soul, disco, and pop. ...
Deborah Ann Harry (born July 1, 1945, in Miami, Florida) is an American rock and roll musician from New Jersey. ...
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. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Change was an American-European group formed in Italy by producers Jacques Fred Petrus and Mauro Malavasi. ...
1980s–1990s: Disbanding, other projects, a brief reunion
 Chic in 1992: Sylver Logan Sharp, Bernard Edwards, Nile Rodgers, Jenn Thomas In the 1980s, the band struggled to obtain airplay and sales, and they eventually disbanded. Rodgers and Edwards separately produced records for a wide variety of artists. Rodgers was largely responsible for the breakthrough success of Madonna in 1984 with her Like a Virgin album. Though it is seldom noted, "Like a Virgin" might be considered a Chic album of sorts in that it reunited Rogers, Thompson, Edwards, and collaborators Bova and Bralower. Thompson and Edwards worked with the super group Power Station on its 1985 hit LP as well as Power Station lead singer Robert Palmer's solo smash Riptide that same year (both of which Edwards produced). Image File history File links Chic92bsmall. ...
Image File history File links Chic92bsmall. ...
Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), better known as simply Madonna, is a six-time Grammy[1] and one-time Golden Globe award winning American pop singer, songwriter, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author and fashion icon. ...
Like a Virgin (1984, see 1984 in music) is the second studio album by singer Madonna. ...
left to right: Robert Palmer, Andy Taylor, John Taylor, and Tony Thompson Power Station was a pop group made up of singer Robert Palmer, bassist John Taylor and guitarist Andy Taylor of Duran Duran, and former CHIC drummer Tony Thompson; two other CHIC members, Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers were...
Robert Allen Palmer (January 19, 1949 – September 26, 2003), born in Batley, Yorkshire, was an English singer. ...
After a 1992 birthday party where Rodgers, Edwards, Paul Shaffer and Anton Fig played old Chic hits to rapturous response, Rodgers and Edwards organized a reunion of the old band. They recorded new material — a single, "Chic Mystique" and subsequent album Chic-ism, both of which charted — and played live all over the world, to great audience and critical acclaim. Paul Shaffer Paul Allen Wood Shaffer (born November 28, 1949 in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian-born Jewish-American musician, actor, voice actor, author, comedian and composer. ...
Anton Fig is a top session drummer noted for his work as the drummer for David Lettermans house band. ...
In 1996 Rodgers was honored as the "Top Producer In the World" in Billboard Magazine, and was named a JT Super Producer. That year, he performed with Bernard Edwards, Sister Sledge, Steve Winwood, Simon Le Bon and Slash in a series of commemorative concerts in Japan which provided a career retrospective. Unfortunately, his longtime musical partner Edwards, died of pneumonia at age 43 during the trip on April 18. His final performance was recorded. The recording was released as "Chic Live At The Budokkan" Chic continued to tour with new musicians. Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry. ...
Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born May 12, 1948 in Great Barr, West Midlands) is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who, in addition to his solo career, was a member of the bands the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith. ...
Simon John Charles Le Bon (born October 27, 1958) is the lead singer and lyricist of the pop band Duran Duran. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Pneumonia is an illness of the lungs and respiratory system in which the alveoli (microscopic air-filled sacs of the lung responsible for absorbing oxygen from the atmosphere) become inflamed and flooded with fluid. ...
April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ...
Thompson died of kidney cancer on November 12, 2003 at age 48. November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 49 days remaining. ...
2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Influences and awards Chic influenced the vocal and music style of the Italian-American disco band Change, who had a string of hits in the early 1980s. Change was an American-European group formed in Italy by producers Jacques Fred Petrus and Mauro Malavasi. ...
In addition to refining a relatively minimalist take on the disco sound, Chic helped to inspire other artists to forge their own sound. For example, The Sugarhill Gang used "Good Times" as the basis for their hit "Rapper's Delight", which helped launch the rap/hip hop music format as we know today. "Good Times" was also used by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five on their hit "..On The Wheels Of Steel" which was used in the end sequence of the first Hip Hop movie "Wild Style" in 1982. The Sugarhill Gang is an American hip hop group, known mostly for their biggest hit, Rappers Delight, the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. ...
Rappers Delight is a 1979 single by American hip hop trio The Sugarhill Gang; it was one of the first hip hop hit singles. ...
Hip hop music is a style of popular music. ...
DJ Grandmaster Flash was one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing. ...
For other uses, see Wild Style (disambiguation). ...
Queen got the inspiration for their hit single "Another One Bites the Dust" from Bernard Edwards' familiar bass guitar riff on "Good Times" after John Deacon met the band in The Power Station recording studio.[citation needed]. Queen are an English rock band, formed in 1970 in London by Brian May, Freddie Mercury, and Roger Taylor, with John Deacon joining the following year. ...
Another One Bites the Dust is a 1980 funk/rock song from the English rock band Queen. ...
For the medieval chroniclers named John, deacon of. ...
Avatar Studios, formerly known as the Power Station, is a renowned recording studio on 48th Street in Manhattan, New York City. ...
Chic was cited as an influence by the majority of successful bands to emerge from Great Britain in the 1980s. Even Johnny Marr of the Smiths cited the group as a formative influence. Rodgers guitar work has been so emulated as to become commonplace, and Edwards' lyrical bass is also much-cited in music circles, as is Thompson's steady and hard-hitting recorded drumwork.
Chic's "DIY" attitude served as an "uptown" version of punk rock's fundamental tenets (while remaining upwardly mobile) and represented a new way for R&B acts to approach their own careers. (The group very quickly grabbed the production reins for their own records, wisely shielded themselves in business matters by forming an umbrella organization from which to administer their services, conceived and formulated their own image, and wrote their own material while holding tight to their publishing rights.)
On September 19, 2005 the group was honored at the Dance Music Hall of Fame ceremony in New York when they were inducted in three categories: 1) Artist Inductees, 2) Record Inductees for "Good Times," and 3) Producers Inductees, Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards. September 19 is the 262nd day of the year (263rd in leap years). ...
2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Dance Music Hall of Fame was created in 2004 by music industry veteran Daniel Glass to honor the creators and innovators of dance music. ...
Chic has been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times (in 2003, 2006, and 2007) but has not yet received the requisite number of votes for induction. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at sunset. ...
Discography For a detailed discography, see here This is the discography for Chic (CHIC). ...
Chic albums Chic LP (Atlantic 1977) Image File history File links Chiclp. ...
| C'est Chic LP (Atlantic 1978)
Image File history File links Cest. ...
Cest Chic is a 1978 album by CHIC. CHIC Cheer - 4:42 Le Freak - 5. ...
| Risqué LP (Atlantic 1979)
Image File history File links Risque. ...
Risqué is a 1979 album by Chic. ...
| Real People LP (Atlantic 1980)
Image File history File links Real. ...
| Take It Off LP (Atlantic 1981)
Image File history File links Takeit. ...
| Tongue In Chic LP (Atlantic 1982)
Image File history File links Tongue82. ...
| Believer LP (Atlantic 1983)
Image File history File links Believer. ...
| Chic-ism CD (Warner 1992)
Image File history File links Chicism. ...
| Live At The Budokan CD (Sumthing Distribution 1999)
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
| NOTE: - In late 1979, a Chic compilation album also charted in both the US and UK. In the US, the compilation reached #88 as Les Plus Grands Succes de Chic: Chic's Greatest Hits. In the UK, where it was titled simply The Best Of Chic, it peaked at #30.
See also This is a list of number-one hits in the United States by year from the Billboard Hot 100. ...
This is a list of recording artists who have reached number one on Billboard magazines weekly pop singles chart(s). ...
This is a list of number-one dance hits as recorded by Billboard Magazine’s Hot Dance Club Play chart — a weekly national survey of popular songs in U.S. dance clubs. ...
This is a list of recording artists who have reached number one on Billboard magazines Hot Dance Club Play chart. ...
References - "Everybody Dance: Chic and the Politics of Disco", book by Daryl Easlea, Helter Skelter Publishing (24 Oct 2004), ISBN 1-900924-56-0 [1]
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