Chic (Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards)

1977 was a big year for Disco. There were many smash hits during the year - and by the year's end two important things happened: the release of Saturday Night Fever and the first hit for Chic, the brilliant musical partnership of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.

Nile Rodgers began his career as an incredible musician, playing for acts like Parliament, Aretha Franklin, and the Sesame Street band. Then, in 1977, he decided to create "the black version of Roxy Music". That band was Chic, and they went on to make some of the biggest and best Disco records of the 70s (not to mention contributing to the invention of hip-hop by providing the sample for Rappers Delight).

Chic were, are, undoubtedly good. Rodgers' elegant, jazz-flavored guitar lines and Bernard Edwards' impossibly nimble-fingered bass parts made Chic a genre-busting proposition, far fresher than any lumpen rock prospect.

Rodgers and Edwards had shrugged off the music business's reluctance to embrace their vision of a black rock band in the early 1970s to create the distinctive Chic sound that seeped into pop music's DNA as thoroughly as any of the previous great black music totems - Motown, Stax, Philadelphia International. Edwards' bass-playing became as influential as Motown's James Jamerson's or the Family Stone's Larry Graham's, and Rodgers' guitar patterns imprinted themselves as indelibly as Jimmy Nolen's in James Brown's bands or Steve Cropper's in the M.G.'s at Stax. Their roster of imperishable hits, from Le Freak to Good Times, We Are Family to He's The Greatest Dancer, Upside Down to I'm Coming Out, have been sampled in industrial quantities.

The word 'Chic' suggests sophistication but Nile Rodgers' journey to that world was anything but smooth. His mother was 13 when she gave birth to him, and he was raised amid the hipsters and hepcats of '50s Greenwich Village. His interracial parents - Beverly and Jewish stepfather Bobby - were both heroin addicts (Nile Rodgers Sr, his birth father, was a gifted Latin American percussionist.)

After an eventful, asthmatic, somewhat peripatetic childhood split between New York and Los Angeles, where aged 13 he encountered Timothy Leary and LSD, Rodgers left home at 15, panhandled, lived in crash pads, and joined the Black Panthers; the beret he's wearing today seeming like an echo of that time.

On weeks off he played fill-in gigs. By then he'd met Edwards. "I come from a very hippy, beatnik, fusionesque world," he recalled, "and when I called Bernard to play bass with me, on my girlfriend's mother’s recommendation, he thought I was so off the wall he actually asked me to lose his number and never call him again. And Bernard's a nice guy so I must have really pissed him off."

Born in 1952 in Greenville, North Carolina, Bernard Edwards moved to New York when he was 10. While in junior high school, he picked up the saxophone but soon moved to electric bass. In 1970 he met the guitarist Nile Rodgers, a New Yorker who'd been a member of Harlem's famous Apollo Theatre house band. Edwards' bad first impression of Rodgers didn't stop them eventually joining forces - and the pair soon became regulars on the soul circuit, forming the Big Apple Band and backing the fine outfit, New York City, on the road. New York City had a hit record in 1973 with I'm Doing Fine Now which charted in the UK:

During 1977, Edwards and Rodgers recruited the powerhouse drummer Tony Thompson, formerly with LaBelle and Ecstasy, Passion, & Pain, to join the band; they performed as a trio doing cover versions at various gigs. Thompson recommended keyboardist Raymond Jones, 19, to join the band, as he had worked with him in the hit group Ecstasy, Passion & Pain. Needing a singer to become a full band, they engaged Norma Jean Wright by an agreement permitting her to have a solo career in addition to her work for the band. Using a young recording engineer Bob Clearmountain, they created the track Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah).

Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) was released as a single at the back end of 1977 and was their first hit. It peaked at the top of the US Disco chart and amazingly peaked at #6 in four major charts: the US Hot 100, the US R&B, the UK, and Canada. This is the short version:

This is the long version:

Everybody Dance was a slightly smaller hit but just as influential. Luther Vandross is on backing vocals:

You Can Get By was also listed as a US Disco #1 hit, along with Dance, Dance, Dance and Everybody Dance:

Edwards and Rodgers were convinced that to produce the band's recording studio sound when performing live with sound and visuals, they needed to add another female singer. Wright suggested her friend Luci Martin, who became a member during late winter/early spring of 1978. Legal details eventually forced Wright to end her relationship with the band during mid-1978. She was replaced as a singer by Alfa Anderson, who had done backup vocals on the band's debut album.

The band was gaining in popularity. However, it was in September 1978, when they released Le Freak, that they exploded into the stratosphere. It was a #1 hit in most major world markets and a top 10 hit in the rest:

This is the extended version:

I Want Your Love was a worthy follow-up. A #1 Disco smash and a top 10 hit in most countries. I dedicate it to my good friend Panos Tz. I know that he loves it:

Chic Cheer was part of the #1 Disco trifecta, along with Le Freak and I Want Your Love:

At Last I Am Free was a 1978 album track, which got a surprising cover from respected progressive musician Robert Wyatt (Soft Machine, Matching Mole). This is the original version by Chic:

This is Robert Wyatt's cover version:

1979 saw the release of a brand new US Hot 100 & R&B #1, Good Times. This is the extended version:

Good Times was heavily sampled (and eventually Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards received a songwriting credit for it) on what is considered to be the first rap hit ever, Rapper's Delight, by The Sugar Hill Gang:

Chic's last big crossover hit came in September 1979. It was called My Forbidden Lover:

After the spectacular success of Chic, Atlantic Records allowed Rodgers and Edwards the freedom to produce any of the artists on the label. The first act they chose was Sister Sledge, the album was We Are Family, and the rest is history. Here to tell us about that serendipitous meeting is Nile:

"We didn't know what to expect but we had written everything before they got there. There were never any demos. We made the record. When they walked in We Are Family sounded like We Are Family except we were still writing the lyric. They couldn't believe it: 'They're writing our song right in front of us?'"

"OK, wait about a half-hour, we went and finished it and started singing it to 'em and… there were a bunch of things that happened with that record that were remarkable, but the most remarkable thing is we heard Kathy Sledge's voice. You gotta be kidding me! This 16-year-old girl can do this? Bernard and I thought that maybe she was going to be (chuckles) our Dionne Warwick – she was just going to sing every song we ever wrote from now on."

"We just found this angel who walked into our lives out of nowhere, 16 years old and we have her singing about having sex with some guy that she never met and we had no idea that she was religious and a virgin. I’m talking about the song He's the Greatest Dancer."

"That caused a little rift between us because we basically have her say, 'My crème de la crème, please take me home.' and 'One night in a disco on the outskirts of Frisco, I was cruising…' The word 'cruising' in those days was sort of taboo because mainly the people who cruised were gay people, hardcore. But you know, I grew up with heroin addicts – there was nothing that was taboo. Everything was fine at my house!"

"So we had no idea this would offend them, that they were so religious. [In the end] Kathy pulled me aside, this 16-year-old girl, sweet as can be, and she said, 'Nile, do you think that I'm ever gonna hear this song on the radio?' I looked at her and I said, 'Of course you’re gonna hear it on the radio. Of course you are.' And she says that when she felt that air of confidence coming from me, she went in and attacked that song."

This is the song in question, the first hit from the album, the iconic He's the Greatest Dancer:

The next hit was even bigger: the album's title track is one of the top 5 Disco anthems ever, along with hits like I Will Survive, I Feel Love, and Staying Alive. It especially resonates with the gay population, since the idea of creating your family among your gay brothers and sisters and allies is what kept many of us alive during the years. Here it is:

This is the 12" version:

Lost In Music was also a big hit for them in Europe:

The big hits stopped coming for them after the Disco craze faded, but they resurfaced in 1985 with another Nile Rodgers' produced album, which included the UK #1 hit single, Frankie:

Sister Sledge wasn't the only successful act produced by Nile Rodgers, Bernard Edwards, or both. In 1980 they produced diana, the Diana Ross' album that gave us Upside Down:

... Also, I'm Coming Out:

... As well as My Old Piano:

The recording process was nightmarish, mostly because Rodgers and Edwards told Ross that she was consistently flat. The album ended up being re-mixed and the vocals pitched up to make the then 36-year-old Ross sound younger. All the drama was worth it, though: the album has sold over ten million copies worldwide.

As a lone songwriter/producer, Bernard Edwards gave Diana Ross her Top 15 hit, Telephone, off of her 1985 platinum Swept Away album:

At around the same time as Upside Down, the duo produced French Pop legend, Sheila, in a combo with B. Devotion. The result was an international hit called Spacer:

They almost made a record with Johnny Mathis. Rodgers explains why this project was eventually shelved:

"A friend of a friend informed us he was interested and we really hit it off. He had just come off hit records with Deniece Williams and we were coming up with what we thought was a new Johnny Mathis style. But the company stopped it before we got very far with it. We were fucking up more than we should have. Here is what was happening. In the hotel where Diana Ross was living there was a disco and we would go there with Johnny Mathis and have a great time. Management was concerned. 'What if [disco] becomes his audience. What if he gave up on his old audience?' We said, 'We're not changing his audience, we're expanding it.' A lot of it was our own fault, our interactions with the record company. I am always dedicated to the artist. Unfortunately, labels see that as adversarial."

In 1981, Rodgers and Edwards turned their hands to Debbie Harry, producing the Blondie singer's first solo album, KooKoo (1981). Their composition, Backfired, was a minor hit single for Debbie:

They then resurrected Carly Simon's career with Why (from the soundtrack of Soup For One) in 1982:

Rodgers' most famous production, as well as his personal favorite, arrived in 1983. As Nile says, "Bowie came in one day and said, 'I want my record to sound like this,' and handed me a picture of Little Richard in a bright red suit, big quiff of hair." The result was Let's Dance, Bowie's biggest international hit. The album produced three huge hit singles. The title track, especially, was Bowie's second #1 single in the US, as well as a #1 hit in the UK and most other major markets:

This is the exquisite China Girl:

... And this is Modern Love:

This is the Live Aid Concert version from 1985:

Also in 1983, Rodgers produced INXS. Aren't the guitars in Original Sin straight out of a Chic song?

In 1984 there was another high profile collaboration: this time he produced Madonna's career-defining album, Like A Virgin. Let's listen to what Nile Rodgers has to say:

"Michael and Jerry Greenberg, are the only two record company guys that I am friends with. Michael brought Like A Virgin to us. I thought it sucked. I never heard it as a hit. It was totally Madonna. She heard it." She did indeed. The song was a huge #1 all-over the world, the foundation stone on which the Madonna legend was built.

Back to you, Nile: "She heard Material Girl, but the key was not [right for her]. Freddie DeMann was Madonna's manager and wanted to hear what we'd done. When he heard Material Girl he called, 'What did you do to the voice!?' He used to be Michael Jackson's manager and he played Thriller, and said, 'Why doesn't it sound like that?!' Who could come out and sound like that with a first record?! And Michael Jackson had been recording for years, was a legend in the business who had a history of hits, who could call up Vincent Price and say, 'Will you do a cameo on my records?' (laughs). We sold a lot of records with Madonna." Here is Material Girl:

This is Angel:

This is Dress You Up:

... And this is Love Don't Live Here Anymore:

Also in 1984, Rodgers co-produced the song Out Out for Peter Gabriel. The song appeared in the hit movie Gremlins:

Duran Duran holds the distinction of being the only act that was produced by both Rodgers and Edwards, but separately. The Wild Boys (1984) was the only studio track on the live album Arena and was produced by Nile Rodgers. It became one of their biggest hits ever:

Their next single was produced by Edwards and it was a special one: A View to a Kill (1985) was the theme of the same-titled Bond film. It was the first Bond song to hit #1 in the US:

For their next album, Notorious (1986), they once more asked Rodgers to assume production duties. The title track was a big hit:

The next single off the album, Skin Trade, didn't do as well, but it was a good song:

In 1985 Nile Rodgers was asked to step in and salvage Lay Your Hands on Me by the Thompson Twins. The new Nile Rodgers-produced version of Lay Your Hands on Me (now with a more distinct gospel sound) reached #6 in the US:

Also in 1985, Rodgers produced Sheena Easton's Do You. Do It for Love was a US top 30 hit:

Again in 1985, Rodgers produced Kim Carnes' Invitation To Dance, for movie That's Dancing!:

Also in 1985, Edwards was instrumental in the formation of the supergroup Power Station. The band's first album was produced by Edwards and featured Chic drummer Tony Thompson, and Duran Duran members John and Andy Taylor as well as singer Robert Palmer. Here's their first hit single, Some Like It Hot:

They followed it up with a hit cover of T.Rex's classic, Get It On (Bang a Gong):

Here they are, performing the song at the Live Aid Concert:

Edwards then produced Robert Palmer's big hit album Riptide. It contained the #1 hit Addicted to Love:

... As well as the equally successful I Didn't Mean to Turn You On:

In 1986 Edwards produced the Air Supply's album Hearts in Motion. From it, here's It's Not Too Late:

Also in 1986, Nile Rodgers co-produced Philip Bailey's (of Earth, Wind & Fire) Inside Out. From that album, this is State of the Heart:

Rodgers also has quite a few soundtracks to his name, including Gremlins, Coming to America, Halo 2 and 3, and The Fly, from which the Bryan Ferry track, Help Me (1986), comes from:

In 1987, Edwards co-produced the ABC's album Alphabet City. It included the classic single When Smokey Sings:

The Night You Murdered Love was a #1 hit in France:

King Without a Crown peaked at #4 in France:

Edwards also oversaw several Rod Stewart recordings, such as his 1988 album Out of Order. The biggest hit from this album was My Heart Can't Tell You No, a US top 5 hit:

Forever Young was also a big hit:

In 1989 Stewart's greatest hits collection contained a new track, a reworking of the Isley Brothers' This Old Heart Of Mine which saw Rod duet with Ronald Isley. It was also produced by Edwards:

In 1990, Edwards co-produced Rod Stewart and Tina Turner's cover of It Takes Two:

Meanwhile, in 1989 Rodgers co-produced with Don Was what would be one of the B-52's best-reviewed and best-selling albums, Cosmic Thing. The title track also appeared on the soundtrack of the movie Earth Girls Are Easy:

Love Shack is definitely one of their most popular songs:

... So is Roam:

The album's first single, however, was Channel Z. It did not achieve as much success as the follow-ups Love Shack and Roam:

The music video of Deadbeat Club featured R.E.M. frontman, Michael Stipe:

After a 1989 birthday party where Rodgers, Edwards, Paul Shaffer, and Anton Fig played old Chic songs, Rodgers and Edwards organized a reunion of the old band. They recorded new material in 1992 – a single, Chic Mystique (remixed by Masters at Work) and a subsequent album Chic-Ism, both of which charted - and played live all over the world, to great audience and critical acclaim. Here is Chic Mystique:

Persuasion was the planned fifth studio solo album by Adam Ant, planned for 1992-3 but was never released, because of legal complications with Adam's former record company. It was produced by Edwards. Edwards' Chic bandmate Tony Thompson played drums on most of the album, including Little Devil, which also features Cameo guitarist Larry Blackmon:

In 1996 Nile Rodgers was named JT Superproducer of the Year in Japan and was invited to perform there with Chic in April of that year. Just before the concert at the Budokan Arena in Tokyo, Edwards fell ill, but despite Rodgers' insistence, refused to cancel the gig. He managed to perform but had to be helped at times. At one point, Edwards blacked out for a few seconds before resuming his playing. Rodgers assumed the absence of bass was a deliberate improvisation and did not learn the truth until after the show. After the concert, Nile went to check on Bernard and asked how he was doing, to which he replied, "I'm fine, I just need to rest." This was the last time Nile spoke to Bernard. Edwards retired to his hotel room where he was later found dead by Rodgers. The cause of death was ruled to be pneumonia. Thompson died of kidney cancer on November 12, 2003, at age 48.

In January 2011 Rodgers revealed on his website that he had aggressive prostate cancer, which had been diagnosed in October 2010. As a result, he started a cancer blog called "Walking on Planet C" detailing his status and upcoming projects. On July 29, 2013, Rodgers posted on Twitter that he had been given the all-clear regarding his cancer. That meant that he could once more do what pleased him most, make music.

Daft Punk wanted to work with Nile because he would record analog and could record stuff in one take. Nile said, "I think that that's what gives me the foundation for always being interested in the music regardless of the genre. I've said a million times, I feel exactly the same if I were with the New York Philharmonic or the Costa Rican National Symphony, which is a really good symphony orchestra, as I do with Avicii and Basement Jaxx… I've made records with Herbie Hancock, jammed with John McLaughlin, three or four times now, I feel like buddies, I look forward to playing with guys that are virtuosos like that."

Daft Punk's album in question is the hugely successful 2013 album Random Access Memories. Rodgers co-wrote and played guitar on three songs, among then the immensely successful Get Lucky, featuring Pharrell Williams, a #1 hit in over 40 countries and #2 in the rest:

Give Life Back to Music was also a big hit. It achieved its highest chart position (#2) in Belgium and South Korea:

Lose Yourself to Dance was a #1 hit in South Korea, as well as on the US Dance chart:

During the same year, What Is Right by Chase & Status was also recorded with Rodgers. Chase & Status' Will Kennard told The Sun: "He came up to us at a festival in Ibiza last year and was like, 'Look I love what you do, I'm Nile Rodgers, can we get in the studio? We were big fans and six months later we had two days in the studio with him."

Kennard's Chase & Status partner, Saul Milton added: "We could have made Get Lucky part two but it wouldn't have made sense for us to have a Chic disco tune on there. It wouldn't have fitted. We wanted to do something going back to Bristol (trip-hop sound) and breaks." This is What Is Right:

Another 2010s star producer caught Nile's fancy; back in 2013, he said: "But, man, half of the reason that I am here [in Europe] today is I came to work on a record with my current favorite songwriting partner, Avicii, and people go, 'Wow, what is it like working with a guy who is 23 years old?' And I go, 'How old do you think I was when I wrote Everybody Dance?' Which to me is the best song that I've ever written. How old do you think I was when I wrote I'm Coming Out and Upside Down? or We Are Family and Lost In Music? I mean, to me these are clever compositions; they're not like three-chord rock. It's like sophisticated stuff. I was 24 years old, 23, 25, 26 years old."

Avicii's song, Lay Me Down, features the vocals of Adam Lambert. Avicii said: "I really fell in love with his voice. He just captured something on that first take." Here it is:

Together by Disclosure was a stand-alone single, also released in 2013. It finds Disclosure collaborating with Nile Rodgers. The slow House jam also features vocalist Sam Smith, who collaborated with the Lawrence brothers previously on their breakout hit, Latch, and songwriter Jimmy Napes who went on to jointly win the Oscar for Best Song with Sam Smith for the movie Spectre:

The latest Chic single was released in 2015 and peaked at #1 in Japan, Israel, and the US Dance chart. The single is called I'll Be There, pays tribute to the disco era and makes references to Chic-related songs and artists produced by the group;

In 2016 Rodgers is still active and working with artists from many different genres, like Keith Urban, with whom he co-wrote and co-produced Sun Don't Let Me Down, also featuring Pitbull:

Give Me Your Love by Sigala features vocals from British singer-songwriter John Newman as well as guitar and production from Nile Rodgers. "John has an incredible voice and Nile has been a major influence on me," Sigala said. "They were great fun to work with and I'm really pleased to get them both on Give Me Your Love." The song was Sigala's fourth UK top 10 hit in a row.

Overcome by Laura Mvula, a modern take on classic soul features production from Nile Rodgers. Mvula and Rodgers became friends as a result of a mutual admiration of each other's work. He tweeted to her, "I want to be in your universe where angels live. I worship you! We must work together", to which she replied, "Let's make it happen soon please". Mvula then sent Rodgers the original draft of Overcome after he asked to hear "the biggest track on the album." This is it:

Finally, four months ago, Fantasy, a reworking of a song that was originally recorded in the late '80s, became George Michael's first posthumous release. In 2016 Michael was looking to launch the reissue of Listen without Prejudice and contacted Nile Rodgers to give Fantasy more funk. Rodgers completely overhauled the original in favor of a slinky funk groove.

The new version received its global exclusive first play on UK radio on September 7, 2017. Rodgers tweeted: "This process was extremely emotional for me. We were such massive fans of each other's work. #Christmas2016 was very sad."

Today's story was supposed to be the big disco crossover hits of 1977. I decided, as I usually do, to lead it off with a big star that broke out that year; that would be Chic. Once I realized the amount of work that Rodgers and Edwards had done in the last 40 years, I've decided that the would be the sole subject of today's story. They're worth the honor, don't you think?