Chic - I'll Be There

Via the Los Angeles Times:

More than 20 years after Chic's last album, the titans of disco and forefathers of today's dance music have a brand new single. Billed as Chic featuring Nile Rodgers, the new song "Ill Be There" is a revival of an old sound while still sounding completely contemporary. It's based on tracks Rodgers originally recorded with the group Sister Sledge and later revamped with the modern house music duo the Martinez Brothers. "The outtake became a new song called 'I'll Be There,' so named because when I discovered my band's co-founder Bernard Edwards' body a few hours after he'd passed away, I said, 'Now, I can be there for you in death, the way you were there for me in life,'" Rodgers wrote on his website. "Back in the day 'Nard always looked out for me. I was the reckless one. We had lots of fun and good times. So on the song's surface it's really happy. It's about the origin of CHIC, and how dance music changed our lives forever."

Chic has been nominated to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame nine times but have still not won inclusion.

2014 Rock Hall Of Fame Nominees: Chic, Kiss, Nirvana, Ronstadt, Hall & Oates

The list of 2014 nominees for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame was announced today. On the list for the eighth time are disco legends Chic, who remain fronted by mega-producer Nile Rodgers (Madonna, David Bowie, Duran Duran.) I took the photo above at Chic's free show at Lincoln Center last summer.

"Teen Spirit" and "Good Times" may be coming to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- sealed with a KISS. Grunge groundbreakers Nirvana, disco dynamos Chic and the costume-clad, Gene Simmons-led pop metal band KISS are among 16 nominees up for election in the museum's Class of 2014. The deep selection also includes '70s and '80s hitmakers Hall and Oates; college radio heroes the Replacements; New Orleans funkmeisters the Meters; sweet-voiced Linda Ronstadt; and pioneering gangsta rappers N.W.A. Completing the list: the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Deep Purple, Peter Gabriel, LL Cool J, Cat Stevens, Link Wray, Yes and the Zombies. The list spans more than six decades of rock and pop history and includes both major pop successes -- Chic, Hall and Oates, Gabriel, Ronstadt and Yes all hit No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart -- and influential players.

Artists become eligible 25 years after their first US release.

NOTE: There may some controversy about the nomination of Cat Stevens, who in 1977 converted to Islam, changed his name to Yusaf Islam, and who (some claim) supported the fatwa calling for the execution of Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie. He has, however, won several major awards for promoting peace.

RELATED: Donna Summer was inducted earlier this year after five consecutive nominations. I took the photos below at the Rock Hall Of Fame when I was in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago. That's the waitress costume Summer wore for the She Works Hard For The Money video. To the right is a copy of one of her early fan club newsletters, which was titled Rumor Has It, after her hit single from 1977's Once Upon A Time.

Adam Lambert & Chic - Let's Dance

Yesterday on Long Island. For those unaware, Chic's Nile Rodgers produced Let's Dance for David Bowie.

Donna Summer Nominated To Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame For Fifth Time

For the fifth time, Donna Summer is among the fourteen acts nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Summer, who died of lung cancer* in May, was also nominated four of the last five years, but has been overlooked despite numerous Grammy wins, including one for Best Rock Vocal Performance. Artists become eligible 25 years after the domestic release of their first commercial full-length record.

Here's the full list, from which five will be chosen: Donna Summer, Joan Jett, The Meters, Public Enemy, N.W.A., Albert King, The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Kraftwerk, Randy Newman, Procol Harum, Rush, the Marvellettes, Deep Purple and Chic.

For the first time ever, fans get to weigh in on this year's inductees, although the "fans ballot" will apparently count as only one of the 600 ballots distributed to artists, music critics, and industry insiders. You can vote for your top five selections at Rolling Stone.  (Via Randy Report)

RELATED: This is Chic's seventh nomination. They and Donna Summer are considered by some to be this year's favorites.

* Summer claimed that her lung cancer was contracted due to exposure to toxic chemicals blown into her downtown Manhattan home after the attack on the World Trade Center.

 

Tonight At Lincoln Center: Free Concert By Nile Rodgers & The Chic Organization

I'd have given you an earlier notice, but I only found out last night. Five or six years ago I was very lucky to attend Chic's 25th anniversary concert at Webster Hall, after which Nile Rodgers generously hung around to sign a million autographs, including one for me. I'm such a huge fan of his, it pains me to single out one example, but let's go with the below stone Chic classic from 1978. (Tragically, Chic bassist Bernard Edwards died in his hotel room shortly after the finish of this 1996 concert in Japan.)

RELATED: For a couple of years Rodgers has been waging a very public battle with prostate cancer, which he chronicles almost daily on his personal blog Walking On Planet C. I check in on it frequently.

Nile Rodgers Walks On "Planet C"

Grammy winning producer and guitarist Nile Rodgers (Chic, Madonna, David Bowie, Diana Ross) has launched a blog detailing his ongoing battle against prostate cancer. From the latest entry on Walking On Planet C:

They told me my cancer was high-grade. I had never heard of the Gleason Scale, the number that grades prostate cancer, prior to my diagnosis. My cancer sat at the head of the class. I'd been rapidly falling apart since CHIC opened for Earth, Wind and Fire a few weeks earlier. I had lost muscle control and couldn't hold my guitar pick. I panicked - but finished the show using my bare finger. For the next few weeks, things continued to worsen and I'd have many painful neurological tests that felt one step below medieval torture. They revealed nothing, but still, I couldn't grip anything.

We wish him well.

Donna Summer Lands Third Nomination To The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

Donna Summer has been nominated to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for the third time, after having been passed over for the 2008 and 2010 classes of inductees. Classic disco group Chic has been nominated for the sixth time. Here's the full list of this year's nominees:

Neil Diamond, Donovan, Alice Cooper, and Dr. John have all been nominated for the very first time, while The J. Geils Band (2005, 2006), Donna Summer (2008, 2010), Chic (2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), Darlene Love (1999, 2010), Joe Tex (1998, 2006, 2007), Chuck Willis (1986-1990!), and Laura Nyro (2010) have made it this far before. Tom Waits, Bon Jovi (2008), LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys are also up for the honor, all but one for the first time.

Artists become eligible for the honor 25 years after the release of their first commercial full-length album. Last year's inductees were ABBA, Genesis, the Stooges, Jimmy Cliff, and the Hollies.

80's Flashback

Sheila B. Devotion, Spacer, 1980. French pop singer Anne Chancel took this Chic production to the top five of most European countries and the top of the American dance charts, selling five million copies along the way. Most of you tender kittens will know Spacer as the basis for Alcazar's 2000 smash, Crying At The Discotheque. It was a great year for Chic's Niles Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, who in 1980 also produced landmark albums for Diana Ross (Upside Down, I'm Coming Out) and Sister Sledge (Got To Love Somebody), as well as their own underrated Real People. For a laugh, go back and listen to Sheila B. Devotion's first big disco hit, 1978's cover of Singing In The Rain, which is one of the more amusing French-accented attempts at an American standard. I'm singing in deh reeeeennnn. Trivia: In some countries, the act was billed as Sheila and Black Devotion, the name of her backup dancers.

#1 This Week In 1978

Contrary to popular opinion at the time, Chic's 1978 smash Le Freak was not written to capitalize on the freak dance craze then sweeping the world. The song actually came about when the band was turned away at Studio 54 because Grace Jones forgot to leave their name at the door. Walking home that night, bandmates Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards composed the song as Fuck Off, a message to the Studio 54 staff. The band had serious plans to release the single as Fuck Off, but later changed the hook to "freak out".

TRIVIA: Le Freak was the first single in Billboard chart history to return to #1 three separate times. It remains the greatest selling single for Atlantic Records and is #19 on the Billboard All Time Top 100.