Chic - Dance, Dance, Dance (The Best Of) (1991)

It's easy to ridicule disco music, but it's also incredibly easy to dance to. And where I grew up in the late '70s, there weren't a lot of other genres of music being played on the radio. I'm not complaining because I think Nile Rodgers and the late Bernard Edwards are/were musical geniuses. Taking a holistic view, you could say the evolution of R&B music goes like this: Ray Charles, James Brown, Sly Stone, Chic, Prince, and so on. Interestingly, I've read interviews with Rodgers that the band's major influence was Bryan Ferry and his band, Roxy Music. In recent years, the band has been nominated 6 times for induction into the always confusing Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2003, 2006-09, & 2011). As of this writing, they have not been selected for induction.

Chic gets a bad rap because their music was popular in the disco era. That just happens to be the type of music that would sell at that time. Put Edwards' bass lines up against any in the history of funk and you'd be hard pressed to find any better. Take away the strings and the hand claps and you'd hardly be able to date this music. If there's a downside to this CD, it's the fact that the disc contains the extended LP mixes of most of the singles. For example, we're treated to a 8:13 version of Good Times and 8:30 version of Dance, Dance, Dance. On some tracks, the groove never gets old. But on others, my cup runneth over after about three and a half minutes.

Tracks:

Song	Album	Year	Hot 100	Disco	R&B
Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)	Chic	1977	6	1	6
Everybody Dance (12" mix)	Chic	1977	38	1	12
Strike Up The Band	Chic	1977	-	-	-
Chic Cheer	C'est Chic	1978	-	-	-
Le Freak	C'est Chic	1978	1	1	1
I Want Your Love	C'est Chic	1978	7	1	5
Good Times	Risqué	1979	1	3	1
My Feet Keep Dancing	Risqué	1979	101	3	42
My Forbidden Lover	Risqué	1979	43	3	33
Soup For One	Soup For One	1982	80	-	14
Savoir Faire	C'est Chic	1978	-	-	-

The hits are all here and they're great. You remember Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah), Everybody Dance, My Forbidden Lover, I Want Your Love, Le Freak, and Good Times, which could have the most important, most sampled, most imitated bass lines of all times (see Bowie's Let's Dance, Queen's Another One Bites The Dust, and, of course, Rapper's Delight). I usually skip Chic Cheer and Soup For One.

Nile Rodgers tells the story that the song Le Freak came about when he was not allowed into Studio 54 one night. He went home and wrote the song with it's original lyrics, "f*** you" instead of "freak out," directed at the bouncer of the famous disco. Of course, he changed the lyrics and the song was a big hit. Part of me wonders if he'd like to restore the original lyrics and dedicate the song to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This music reminds me very much of my 7th and 8th grade years at McAllister School. We actually learned disco dancing in PE. Now that's a curriculum I can fully support.