(May 19, 2023). Fans of the legendary disco band Chic were recently polled in a Facebook group devoted solely to them and asked to name their ten favorite songs by the group responsible for such classics as “Le Freak,” “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah),” and “Good Times.”
Nearly 40 of the Chic faithful responded dutifully, and yours truly—arguably the Nile Rodgers-led collective’s biggest fan (humbly stated with no disrespect to the others in the FB group)—compiled the results, which are presented below in a special tribute to the greatest disco/funk/R&B ensemble there ever was.
The Facebook group is a private one named “The CHIC Organization Ltd (Nile Rodgers & Bernard Edwards) Facebook Page.” It is so named in honor of the band’s two founders, rhythm guitarist Rodgers and the late bassist Edwards, as well as the self-named production umbrella under which they created some of the greatest dance and disco classics (and ballads) for their own band and for others.
The Facebook page boasts more than 9500 members, but (thankfully for this blogger who took on the task of processing their votes in a spreadsheet) only the most dedicated Chic experts spoke up and gave their opinions about the band’s concise but iconic song catalogue.
From the 39 diehard fans who commented with their votes, over 50 different songs by Chic—53 to be exact—were nominated.
And for those who might be thinking, “that number is so high it must include songs that the Chic Organization famously produced for other artists, like Sister Sledge (“We Are Family,” “He’s The Greatest Dancer,” “Got To Love Somebody,” “Pretty Baby,” etc.), Diana Ross (“Upside Down,” “I’m Coming Out,”), Sheila B. & Devotion (“Spacer”), and Norma Jean (“High Society,” “Saturday,” “I Like Love”),” it doesn’t.
These are all songs Chic recorded for themselves, all written and produced by Rodgers and Edwards, and mostly performed by the classic lineup that included those two plus Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin, Tony Thompson and previously Norma Jean Wright (on the first album).
In all, nine of the band’s albums are represented among the 53 songs that received votes, dating back to their debut self-titled album Chic (1977) all the way through their first comeback set CHIC-ism (1992), Edwards’ last with the band.
All lists submitted from the time the poll was introduced on May 16 through 1:00 am this morning (May 19) were counted. The last vote counted was from FB group member J. Ashworth.
And every comment was factored in, even if it was just a comment on a comment, or if it only included one, two, three, five or eight songs, it was still counted among the votes.
Here’s the points methodology djrobblog used to come up with the rankings:
Songs were assigned points in an inverted fashion, with ten points going to songs at No. 1 on a person’s list, nine points for No. 2, and so on down to one point for No. 10.
If a person commented with only one song, that song only got five points as it was assumed the person had other favorites that would have gained points had they taken the time to provide them, and that one song shouldn’t get the same benefit that a No. 1 tune on a ten-song list would get.
For people who only submitted two titles, those songs received seven and four points based on the order in which they were listed. For only three titles, the point distribution was nine for No. 1, six for No. 2, and three for No. 3.
If a person submitted only five, then the points distribution was 10-8-6-4-2 in order of how the songs were ranked.
Any submissions numbering more than five followed the original convention where the top song received 10 points, the second received nine, and so on.
Because there were some folks who took it there, there were a few write-ins that included aforementioned songs by Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, etc. Those were automatically filtered out of the votes so that only the songs performed by Chic were assigned points using the above methodology.
And finally, one person (member D. Miller) simply wrote “every song off the first, second and third albums.”
And since this is a democratic society, his vote for the 22 songs from Chic, C’est Chic, and Risqué counted. But instead of the above convention where top ten songs received votes in inverted order from ten points to one, djrobblog assigned those 22 songs 2.5 points each (totaling 55 points).
Why that number?
Because 55 points is the total number of points that a top-10 list gets (10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1 = 55), and since Mr. Miller didn’t assign a preference to any one song, they all got the same amount. (This also explains the .5 fraction you’ll see in the point totals below for those 22 songs).
And finally (for real this time), special shouts go out for the albums Chic, C’est Chic and Real People, whose entire track lists received votes (even without accounting for Mr. Miller’s all-inclusive nod for the former two sets).
So, all you discovators (as Mr. Ashworth affectionately referred to his fellow FB group members), here are the 50 greatest Chic songs as determined by Chic’s best experts—their most devoted fans—in order from No. 1 to No. 50 (along with a special Spotify playlist below featuring all the songs…and then some).
| Rank | Song | Points | Original album |
| 1. | “I Want Your Love” | 159.5 | C’est Chic (1978) |
| 2. | “Good Times” | 114.5 | Risqué (79) |
| 3. | “My Forbidden Lover” | 89.5 | Risqué (79) |
| 4. | “Le Freak” | 80.5 | C’est Chic (78) |
| 5. | “Everybody Dance” | 64.5 | Chic (77) |
| 6. | “A Warm Summer Night” | 56.5 | Risqué (79) |
| 7. | “Real People” | 47 | Real People (80) |
| 8. | “Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)” | 43.5 | Chic (77) |
| 8. | “My Feet Keep Dancin’” | 43.5 | Risqué (79) |
| 10. | “At Last I Am Free” | 40.5 | C’est Chic (78) |
| 11. | “Stage Fright” | 36 | Take It Off (81) |
| 12. | “Open Up” | 33 | Real People (80) |
| 13. | “Savoir Faire” | 32.5 | C’est Chic (78) |
| 14. | “Soup For One” | 32 | Soup For One (82) |
| 15. | “What About Me?” | 31.5 | Risqué (79) |
| 16. | “I Got Protection” | 31 | Real People (80) |
| 17. | “Rebels Are We” | 29 | Real People (80) |
| 18. | “Will You Cry?” | 27.5 | Risqué (79) |
| 19. | “I Loved You More” | 26 | Real People (80) |
| 20. | “Happy Man” | 22.5 | C’est Chic (78) |
| 21. | “Chip Off The Old Block” | 20 | Real People (80) |
| 22. | “Believer” | 19 | Believer (83) |
| 22. | “I’ll Be There” | 19 | (single) (2015) |
| 24. | “São Paulo” | 17.5 | Chic (77) |
| 25. | “You Are Beautiful” | 17 | Believer (83) |
| 26. | “(Funny) Bone” | 16.5 | C’est Chic (78) |
| 27. | “When You Love Someone” | 16 | Tongue In Chic (82) |
| 28. | “Strike Up The Band” | 15.5 | Chic (77) |
| 29. | “Your Love” | 14 | CHIC-ism (92) |
| 30. | “Chic Cheer” | 13.5 | C’est Chic (78) |
| 31. | “So Fine” | 12 | Take It Off (81) |
| 32. | “Falling In Love With You” | 10.5 | Chic (77) |
| 33. | “Change My Game” | 9 | previously unreleased by Fonzi Thornton ft. Chic |
| 33. | “Tavern On The Green” | 9 | Soup For One (82) |
| 33. | “Flash Back” | 9 | Take It Off (81) |
| 33. | “Hangin’” | 9 | Tongue In Chic (82) |
| 37. | “Est-ce Que C’est Chic” | 8.5 | Chic (77) |
| 38. | “Give Me The Lovin’” | 8 | Believer (83) |
| 38. | “Your Love Is Cancelled” | 8 | Take It Off (81) |
| 40. | “Show Me Your Light” | 7 | Believer (83) |
| 41. | “Chic Mystique” | 6 | CHIC-ism (92) |
| 41. | “26” | 6 | Real People (80) |
| 41. | “Burn Hard” | 6 | Take It Off (81) |
| 44. | “Sometimes You Win” | 5.5 | C’est Chic (78) |
| 45. | “Just Out Of Reach” | 5 | Take It Off (81) |
| 45. | “Take It Off“ | 5 | Take It Off (81) |
| 45. | “I Feel Your Love Comin’ On” | 5 | Tongue In Chic (82) |
| 48. | “M.M.F.T.C.F.” | 4 | CHIC-ism (92) |
| 48. | “You Can’t Do It Alone” | 4 | Real People (80) |
| 50. | “You Can Get By” | 3.5 | Chic (77) |
These songs also got votes: “Can’t Stand To Love You” (from Risqué, 2.5 points); “Just Call Me” (previously unreleased single, 1 pt); and “City Lights” (Tongue In Chic, 1 pt).
Any surprises? How did your favorite Chic song do?
Here are some anecdotes from the list:
Top instrumental: “Open Up” (from Real People), followed closely by “Savoir Faire” (C’est Chic).
Top album cut (non A-side single): “A Warm Summer Night” (Risqué), followed by “At Last I Am Free” (C’est Chic).
Top song by solo lead vocalist: Alfa Anderson (“I Want Your Love”), Norma Jean Wright (“Everybody Dance”), Luci Martin (“Real People”), Bernard Edwards (“Soup For One”), Fonzi Thornton (“Change My Game”).
Album ranks (based on accumulation of points for tracks from the original LPs):
- C’est Chic (1978) – 371 points
- Risqué (1979) – 365.5
- Real People (1980) – 196
- Chic (1977) – 163.5
- Take It Off (1981) – 81
- Believer (1983) – 51
- Soup For One (1982; various artists soundtrack) – 41
- Tongue In Cheek (1982) – 31
- CHIC-ism (1992) – 24
- It’s About Time (2018) – 0
Were there any surprises there? Their second album C’est Chic—the only one to contain two Billboard top ten hits (“Le Freak” and “I Want Your Love”)—barely edged out their third LP Risqué, which included “Good Times” and its quiet storm B-side, “A Warm Summer Night,” plus stellar followup singles “My Forbidden Lover” and “My Feet Keep Dancin’.”
All four of those songs placed in the top ten of these rankings, making Risqué the only album to achieve that feat.
What are some of your observations, Chic fans? How did your favorite songs and albums fare?
Feel free to comment below or on any of the social media feeds where the article is posted.
And here’s that playlist I teased earlier.
Enjoy (and don’t forget to comment)!
DJRob
DJRob (he/him/his), who hopes Nile Rodgers gets to see this and is still pining for that lifelong dream to interview him, is a freelance music blogger from somewhere on the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, pop and rock genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Twitter at @djrobblog.
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