In the era of bell-bottoms, disco balls and the word "groovy," Chic helped established urban funk, dance-pop and hip-hop in an era when disco was falling apart.Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards formed a 1972 jazz-fusion group called the Big Apple Band just two years after they had graduated from high school and met. The Big Apple Band toured behind "New York City" and Carol Douglas before leaving the background in 1976 with dreams to make it on their own. Bringing aboard drummer Tony Thompson and vocalists Normal Jean Wright and Alfa Anderson, the newly named Chic focused on dance music rather than the familiar new-wave pop.They recorded their demo single "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" and released it under the Buddah label as a 12" in 1977. Becoming a quick dance club hit, Atlantic picked up the group and rereleased the single under a wider audience, making it a Top Ten. Their 1978 self-titled debut album created a mild stir, only to be followed up by their smash sophomore effort C'est Chic. The album, which held vocalist Luci Martin in place of Wright, spent five weeks on the top of the charts.Chic's disco grooves were topping charts not only under their names, but with rewrites as well. The group started working backstage on their tracks, finding success with Diana Ross's 1980's Diana, writing and producing "Upside Down," her first number one hit in years.As disco fans lost interest in the genre, Chic found success using their creativity in the environment of hip-hop records. As producers, Edwards and Rogers found serious commercial success with albums like Madonna's Like a Virgin, David Bowie's Let's Dance and Mick Jagger's She's the Boss. Reconvening in 1992, Chic released Chic-ism, continuing to tour with the latest version of this disco-dancing pop group.
