(December 21, 2024). This past Tuesday, December 17, the music world lost Alfa Anderson, the unsung former lead singer of Chic, who passed away at the age of 78. Anderson had the distinction of being the only person who sang — either backup or lead — on all five of Chic’s top 40 Hot 100 hits between 1977-79. Born in Augusta, Georgia, in 1946, Alfa’s journey from her Southern roots to the forefront of the global disco scene is a story of serendipity, talent, and timeless sophistication.
While no official cause of death has been reported — in fact, no news story of Anderson’s death appeared in “reputable” sources before Saturday (21st); it first appeared in several old-school and Chic-focused social media accounts earlier this week — Anderson’s is a story worth telling.
As many close friends know, the disco/R&B/funk ensemble Chic is my all-time favorite group. That’s a status they once alternated with the Elements of the Universe — Earth Wind & Fire — until one day I realized that it had been Chic all along. I grew up with both bands, but it was Chic I’d watched from their very humble beginning. I was of a conscious musical age when they came to be, unlike the Elements, which had been around before I was old enough to buy records. I had my Mom to thank for our early EWF collection. Chic was all my own doing.
It was their sophistication I admired as a newly pubescent 12-year-old boy after seeing their second album cover — the one featuring an elegant Alfa Anderson draped in front of a living room couch — for the first time.
It was their music, with its increasingly sparse arrangements featuring the impeccable rhythms of guitarist Nile Rodgers, bassist Bernard Edwards, and drummer Tony Thompson, that drove me to a listening frenzy.
The Chic sound evolved as I did. Their first singles, featuring Norma Jean Wright on lead vocals, were era-appropriate odes to the simple act of dancing, which I then liked to do. And while “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “Everybody Dance” — both top 40 hits — may have sounded redundant in title, they couldn’t have been more different in signaling the direction the band was headed musically.
Whereas the first single, which reached No. 6 on both the pop and the soul charts and sold a million copies in the process, announced Chic’s arrival, it was the lesser hit “Everybody Dance” that better represented their future sound. The strings were less dominant in the latter song but still an important element. The piano flourished in ways that it hadn’t on “Dance, Dance, Dance” but would on future hits. The flute on “Dance”x3 was gone. The handclaps were introduced, initially subtly on “Everybody,” but they were there.
And I was reaching the age where detail and musicianship started to matter; I was slowly falling in love with this new band without realizing it.
The success of Chic’s self-titled debut album, which featured backing vocals by Alfa Anderson and Luther Vandross, along with David Lasley, Robin Clark, and Diva Gray (they all shared lead on “Dance, Dance, Dance”), led to Norma Jean’s amicable departure to pursue a solo career (Chic would produce and perform on her first and only solo album, keeping her in their ever-growing family of musicians).
With the void created by Wright’s exit and Atlantic Records clamoring for a Chic followup LP, Alfa stepped up as co-lead singer alongside new member Luci Martin. Chic’s sophomore album, C’est Chic, marked a new chapter for the group, and Alfa’s voice became central to its biggest triumphs.
Raised in Augusta, Alfa graduated from Paine College and took up a career in education before setting her sights on New York City. It was there that her life took a pivotal turn when she befriended a young Vandross. Luther, himself destined for greatness, introduced Alfa to Nile Rodgers, who, along with Bernard Edwards, was forming what would become one of the most influential disco bands of all time.
From Backing Vocalist to Disco Royalty
We saw Alfa for the first time on that classic second album cover. Chic’s first album had featured two uncredited but provocative models on the cover, creating some of the mystique the band would later exude themselves without the need for nameless, high-cheekboned faces representing their product.
On C’est Chic’s album art, Alfa and Bernard adorned the largest piece of furniture in a sparsely decorated living room, while Luci leaned stylishly against an open door frame staring outside, seemingly taking in nature’s beauty. Meanwhile Nile, holding what appeared to be a sheet of music, stands over Tony Thompson who is seated in a chair clearly too small for his tall, lean frame.
Alfa and her bandmates were becoming icons of elegance, dressed in haute couture-inspired attire that graced their album covers and stage performances. The men — Rodgers, Edwards, and Thompson — exuded sharp, tailored style, while Alfa and Luci turned heads as fashion plates of the disco era. On 1978’s C’est Chic’s cover, the sparseness of the room’s decor served as a metaphor for the band’s no-frills musical style, one that contrasted with the over-the-top disco style so pervasive in the late 1970s.
All of this combined to create style and elegance, something rarely found in music today. Chic was ready to fully embrace what its name embodied — not only in appearance, which was evident, but in song and sound — and without losing their knack for setting dance floors ablaze with their ever sharpening signature groove, one that blended rhythmically intricate guitar and bass lines with lush, but often percussive vocals.
Key to this was Alfa Anderson in an increasingly prominent role. On C’est Chic, Augusta’s favorite daughter rose to the occasion of her new promotion. She sang all the solo female leads on the album. This included the introspective love ballad “At Last I Am Free,” the wistfully sublime “I Want Your Love,” and the mid-tempo shuffler “Sometimes You Win,” Alfa’s first of several duets with Edwards.
She also shared lead vocals on “Le Freak” with backup singer Diva Gray (Luci was not yet a member when it was recorded). Following its October 1978 release, “Le Freak” would become Atlantic Records’ biggest selling 45 rpm vinyl single in the label’s storied history.
The Magic of “Le Freak” and Beyond
Few songs encapsulate the disco era like Chic’s “Le Freak.” Written during a moment of frustration when Rodgers and Edwards were turned away from Studio 54, the song became a euphoric anthem of liberation and celebration. Alfa and Diva Gray sang in unison about, what else, dancing. Except this time, it was a very specific set of moves called the “Freak” (yes, there was a dance called the Freak and I challenge anyone who was around then to show me what that looked like).
“Le Freak” skyrocketed to No. 1 on the soul, disco, and pop charts, alternating at No. 1 on the latter with red hot songs by some of the biggest pop chart veterans of the era, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond (“You Don’t Bring Me Flowers”) and The Bee Gees (“Too Much Heaven”). In fact, “Le Freak” dispatched each of those songs from the top — “Flowers” twice — and in the process became the first single to yo-yo in and out of the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 three times in that chart’s history (a feat it owned solely for 30 years).
Setup by the monster success of “Le Freak,” the followup single — “I Want Your Love” — couldn’t fail. For radio consumption, the original nearly seven-minute album version was cut to half its duration for the 7” single, but still captured Alfa’s beautiful intonation as she pleaded with a would-be lover to give in to her desires. Backed by Chic’s near-perfect ensemble of strings, horns, piano, synth, tubular bells (in this case) and that impeccable rhythm section, Anderson could do no wrong. Her pleading vocals were dramatic yet understated, punctuating the song’s haunting melody.
As a close friend once pointed out, the song’s music foundation is so perfectly constructed that “I Want Your Love” might have been just as compelling were it only an instrumental track. But Alfa ensured that was an outcome we’d never have to realize. It was her masterpiece without trying to be so. It still reigns as my favorite song by the group, and arguably my favorite song of all time.
With two more hits and a second LP now under their belts, Chic’s music was evolving into something even more sophisticated. Their lush arrangements and elegant compositions set them apart in an era dominated by four-on-the-floor beats and flashy hooks. Their ballads balanced them as versatile musicians in an era where too often disco bands were defined by the hit singles that brung ‘em to the party. No further proof of Chic’s versatility was needed than on Alfa’s ballads “At Last I Am Free,” still a group concert essential, and the advice-filled “Sometimes You Win.”
Disco’s Pinnacle: Chic’s Golden Era
By the time Chic released their third album, Risqué, in summer 1979, the group was a cultural phenomenon. Their music embodied a level of refinement and artistry that mirrored their fashion sense. The sounds were even more sparse, but more aggressive, especially rhythmically. Even the vocals were sharper, more staccato in cadence, designed to grab and keep listeners’ attention. Often delivered in chant-like fashion, the main vocalists and their background singers eschewed harmony for unison singing, making their voices less distinguishable individually but still impactful collectively.
Alfa remained the group’s most featured singer. She was given two solo fronts (on the weepy ballad “Will You Cry” and the mid-tempo fan favorite “What About Me?”) while she shared lead duties on the album’s two biggest hits with Luci Martin (and Fonzi Thornton): “Good Times” and “My Forbidden Lover.” “Good Times,” known more for its iconic bass and rhythm section than who sings it, reached No. 1 on the pop and R&B charts (becoming the biggest hit of 1979 on the latter). The song captured the soul of a movement that celebrated joy and liberation on the dance floor, or in this specific case, the rollerskating rink.
It also, ironically, signaled the pending end to the good times that its main genre — disco — had enjoyed for the better part of half a decade, and especially the preceding 18 months. Disco was suffering an intense backlash and “Good Times” itself was displaced from No. 1 by the rock anthem “My Sharona,” a symbolic event that followed by mere weeks the famous “disco demolition” at Chicago’s then-named Comiskey Park that July. There would be more disco triumphs on the pop charts over the next 18 months, including one very prominently involving Chic, but the proverbial shine had fallen off the platform shoes as 1979 came to a close.
Still, Chic and its members charged on. Bernard and Nile were highly sought-after producers who’d already helmed Sister Sledge’s We Are Family album and its major hits in the title track and “He’s the Greatest Dancer,” plus fan favorites “Thinking of You” and “Lost in Music,” all on which Alfa Anderson and her colleagues contributed backing vocals. With Nile and Bernard — under the Chic Organization umbrella — slated to produce upcoming albums by superstar Diana Ross and newcomer Shelia B. Devotion, plus the followup albums by Norma Jean and Sister Sledge, and Chic’s own fourth LP, there was no shortage of work for Anderson in the coming year.
Real People, Diana, and Chic’s Demise
Chic’s fourth album, 1980’s Real People, doubled down on the fashion (see the above album cover) while eschewing the band’s disco-focused sound for a less-defined, rock-leaning one. This time, Alfa was featured on fewer lead vocals than her counterpart, Luci Martin. Alfa’s voice guides the very traditionally Chic sounding “I Got Protection” and “Chip Off the Old Block,” while Martin performed more rock-oriented tracks in the lead-off singles “Rebels Are We” and the title song.
While Real People didn’t perform nearly as well as Chic’s first three LPs — becoming their first not to generate any pop top 40 hits — the songs were stellar, maintaining many of the band’s essential elements (interloping bass and guitar parts, punctuating strings, infectious rhythms, sharp staccato vocals), particularly Alfa’s on “Protection,” which has always been a personal favorite.
But the 1980 song on which Anderson provided vocals that has alternated with “I Want Your Love” as my absolute favorite tune of all time doesn’t appear on a Chic album.
Diana Ross, who was coming off her highly successful disco-ey album The Boss, had commissioned Chic — specifically Rodgers and Edwards — to produce the followup, simply titled Diana. When they did, they directed none other than their Chic Organisation members to perform all the music and backing vocals. The first single, “Upside Down,” was a delayed release after the album had already been out a month — this due to ongoing disputes between Rodgers and Edwards, Diana Ross who’d gone into the studio to remix the entire album which wasn’t initially to her liking, and Motown Records, which was embroiled in a lawsuit with Rodgers and Edwards over payments for their work.
But when “Upside Down” was finally shipped to radio and stores, it exploded up the charts, reaching No. 1 on the soul, pop and disco rankings and becoming Ross’ biggest solo hit (and second-biggest chart success overall after the Lionel Richie duet “Endless Love”). Chic’s Anderson and Martin, plus new regular contributors Fonzi Thornton and Michelle Cobbs, provided all the backing vocals for “Upside Down,” the LGBTQ anthem “I’m Coming Out,” and many of Diana’s other tracks.
In a contemporary review of the album, the Village Voice writer Robert Christgau wrote: “(Ross’) perky angularity and fit-to-burst verve could’ve been designed for Rodgers and Edwards’ synergy — you’d swear she was as great a singer as Alfa Anderson herself.”
Boom!
Sadly, that singing talent didn’t carry Chic to the level of success the band had enjoyed just a few years earlier as the 1980s moved swiftly through multiple musical phases that didn’t include Chic’s brand of funk/disco. Anderson — along with the four other core members — would record three more albums as Chic, culminating in 1983’s Believer. Alfa’s solo contributions became fewer and fewer as the other singers — Luci Martin and Bernard Edwards — were given more prominent roles.
Alfa recorded some standout tracks during that late-Chic era, however, including “Just Out of Reach” (a duet with Edwards on 1981’s Take It Off LP), and the funky love ballad “When You Love Someone” (from ‘82’s Tongue in Chic).
Remembering Alfa Anderson
When Chic initially disbanded in 1983, Rodgers and Edwards — individually and collectively — went on to produce other artists (Madonna, David Bowie, Duran Duran, Power Station), with great success. Anderson would go on to sing backup on future projects by some of the biggest names in music (Luther Vandross, Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, Sheena Easton). She ultimately returned to her original passion, teaching, and earned her second master’s degree, which led to a school principalship in NYC (at the El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice in Brooklyn).
Alfa Anderson made a musical comeback during the 2010s, first reuniting with Luci Martin and Norma Jean Wright and touring under the moniker First Ladies of Chic, and then recording her first solo album titled, Music From My Heart, featuring the single “Perfectly Chic.” She also later reunited with Nile Rodgers and Fonzi Thornton on the 2018 Chic single, “I’ll Be There,” a welcome return to the revitalized group that made her famous 40 years earlier.
Alfa Anderson’s passing triggered many childhood memories and is a reminder of the immense talent and grace that she brought to Chic and the disco era as a whole. Despite the many vocalists who’ve fronted the rehashed band on tour and on albums over the past 30-plus years, her contributions to songs like “Le Freak,” “I Want Your Love,” “Good Times,” “A Warm Summer’s Night,” and “At Last I Am Free” remain timeless, a testament to the sophistication and soul that defined the band’s sound during its heyday.
Her music legacy remains intact. She, along with the other four classic Chic members, remain the only artists to have been nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame eleven times. Excluding Rodgers, who was inducted solo in 2017 in the category of Musical Excellence, Anderson, Martin, Thompson and Edwards remain the most nominated musicians to have never gained entry.
Now Anderson is the third member of the classic Chic lineup to pass away — following founder Edwards and Thompson. She also joins other prominent Chic contributors, including pianist Raymond Jones, violinist Valerie Heywood, and singers Gray and Vandross, who’ve moved on from this side.
As disco evolved and Chic’s influence continued to ripple across genres, Alfa’s voice stood as a beacon of the elegance and artistry that made the music unforgettable. She wasn’t just a singer; she was the embodiment of an era that turned dance music into high art.
Rest in peace, Alfa Anderson. Your legacy is forever etched in the grooves of those vinyl records, spinning joy and inspiration to generations past, present, and future.
And a personal thanks to you from me, your and Chic’s biggest fan, for a lifetime of musical memories that have sustained me through times both bad and good, but mostly, with tongue firmly planted in Chic, “Good Times.”
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on Bluesky at @djrobblog.bsky.social, X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog, on Facebook or on Meta’s Threads.
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Darrell,
Thank you for such a moving tribute to Alfa.
Alex, no problem. I absolutely loved her. She and Bernard Edwards were my favorite members of my favorite group all time.