Dance Dance Dance: Best of Chic [CASSETTE] [Import]

One of the best (if not the best yet) albums in disco / dance history of the late 70's. This CD compiles one of the most detailed collection of top singles in the 'Saturday Night Fever decade', which you may like or dislike, but cannot disagree telling that you've heard almost every sound in this CD...

Then, if you can have the privilege to see them live you can tell it was worth the price, because Chic performs almost all of the songs contained in this CD. A must for not-so-young collectors.

Without doubt, I would place Chic amongst my all-time favourite bands, and not only that, amongst the most talented and most influential bands ever to have graced pop music, definitely amongst the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin et alia. Certainly having discovered them a year or so ago(I am only 20!), I have yet to get tired of their songs, and through having heard their stuff done by other artists like Sister Sledge ("We Are Family", "Lost in Music", "He's the Greatest Dancer"), Diana Ross ("Upside Down") and Carly Simon ("Why"), I cannot help think that Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards are on par with Lennon and McCartney, Bacharach and David, and Elton John and Bernie Taupin as great songwriting partners.

This album, for the neutral(for the Chic conoisseur, go for "C'est Chic" or "Risqué", their best albums), encapsulates why the group were brilliant, and would have been amazing to have seen live. Especially Nile Rodgers (guitar), Bernard Edwards (bass) and Tony Thompson (drums), they were definitely what defined the band. Quite frankly, whilst the female singers in Chic are very good, the musicians steal the show... which highlights how good Thompson, Rodgers and Edwards were. Thompson's pulsating rhythms, Rodgers' riffs, and Edwards mean basslines made them a phenomenal band musically, and certainly, I have yet to come up with anyone who could have matched or who can match Edwards on bass. Not even Flea from Chilis. Any suggestions? Okay, at their peak, they were a "disco" band, but they could certainly do rock too, as proved by their later contributions(e.g. work with David Bowie, Power Station, Duran Duran, Robert Palmer etc). In fact, if you take away the lush orchestration that gave the impression of effortless elegance, they would have been a very hard rock band. However, they DID define disco, and songs like "Le Freak", "I Want Your Love" and "Good Times" will always stick in people's minds as feel good songs that you strut and dance to. As well as songs that you can sit back, and just admire the handiwork of Rodgers, Edwards and Thompson.

This is a CD that I would definitely recommend for anyone's collection, as all the songs are just brilliant, and show why their music has influenced so many artists, from rock(Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" was inspired by "Good Times") to rap ("Rapper's Delight", the first major rap song to hit charts worldwide, sampled the bass and guitar from "Good Times"). Even the lesser known songs you will recognise: "Chic Cheer" was sampled in a recent hit, and "Soup for One" in Modjo's hit song "Lady(Hear Me Tonight)". Overall, a fantastic set that has not dated whatsoever.

Many a band are considered influential , some deservedly ,some rather contentiously but what is in absolutely NO doubt what so ever is that Chic , the American disco/funk band formed in 1976 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards , are one of the most influential bands of all time. Plus they made music so expansively enjoyable that trees would uproot to dance to it.

Their music as well as being as being sampled in countless hits ( "Rappers Delight " by The Sugarhill Gang" , Grandmaster Flash's "On The Wheels Of Steel" both sampled "Good Times" while fairly recently Modjo sampled "Soup For One" on "Lady (Hear me Tonight")The bass line from Queens "Another One Bites The Dust" was also filched from "Good Times" after John Deacon bumped into the band while recording for The Power Station- a band who described their sound as Chic meets The Sex Pistols while being no where near as good as either. Even artists as far removed as Johnny Marr has acknowledged Chic's influence. If you can be bothered their stimulus can be heard in music today with horrid pseudo funksters like The Red Hot Chilli Peppers basing their whole rhythm section on the peerless playing of Edwards and drummer Tony Thompson.

It's the playing of Edwards , Rodgers and Thompson that really set Chic apart with gracefully complex bass lines, crisp confident percussion and the lustrous sheen of the riffs augmented by strings and delicately tiptoeing piano .The vocals by Norma Jean Wright and Luci Martin later replaced by Alfa Anderson are emollient smooth and effortless , never overindulging in extraneous vocal frippery and serve the music's mostly hedonistic verve supremely well.

The songs on this compilation are taken mostly from their excellent "Risqué" and "Ces,t Chic" albums released in 1979 and 1978 respectively -the bands golden period and if you can hear songs like "Good Times"-contender for the best disco track ever- or "Le Freak" ( Incidentally the "Awww Freak Out" line was originally going to be "Awww F**K Off" but was changed for obvious commercial reasons) without wanting to dance like a baboon in loon pants then you are either deaf, dead or might as well be dead. The same goes for "Everybody Dance"-here in it's 12inch remix version - or "I Want Your Love" or "My Forbidden Lover". Even the slower tracks like "Savoir Faire" are effortlessly cool as I believe it's errr cool to say . There is even a great lost disco classic here , at least lost in the sense it was never a single , the sassily superb "My Feet Keep Dancing".

A truly great band , rightly honoured numerous times for their influential sound and the production skills of Nile Rodgers( Edwards and Thompson have both sadly passed away) they have been nominated three times for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame but have never received the requisite number of votes. Dance music has long since garnered Chic with a similar award. No matter because we the people who listen to and have bought their albums know what a monumental band they were. To paraphrase a couple of songs off this essential compilation ( Essential if you don't own their other albums already) strike up the band listening to Chic will always cheer you up.