Track of the Day: Chic – Good Times (1979)

‘Good Times‘ composed by legendary bassist Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers was first recorded by their band Chic in 1979 for their album Risqué.

The song has become one of the most sampled tunes in music history, most notably in hip-hop tunes;

• “Around the World” by Daft Punk
• “Back to the Old School” by Just Ice
• “Basic Mega-Mix” by DJ Shadow
• “B-Boy Bouillabaisse” by The Beastie Boys
• “Dangerous” by Busta Rhymes (in the Soul Society remix)
• “Doowutchyalike” by Digital
  

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  Underground

• “Last Night A DJ Saved My Life” (song) by Indeep
• “Leave This Off Your Fu*kin Charts” by Public Enemy
• “Megamix II (Why Is It Fresh?)” by Grand Mixer DST
• “Monster Jam” by Spoonie Gee
• “Need You Tonight” by INXS
• “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” by Grandmaster Flash
• “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow
• “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang
• “Rapture” by Blondie
• “Refugees on the Mic” by Fugees
• “Rock Your Body” (song) by Justin Timberlake
• “A Roller Skating Jam Named ‘Saturdays'” by De la Soul
• “Rock the Bells” by LL Cool J
• “Scratch Monopoly” by T. La Rock
• “13 and Good” by Boogie Down Productions
• “Wildstyle” by Timezone featuring Afrika Bambaata

The lyrics are largely based on Milton Ager‘s “Happy Days Are Here Again.” It also contains lines based on lyrics featured in “About a Quarter to Nine” made famous by Al Jolson. Nile Rodgers has stated that these depression-era lyrics were used as a hidden way to comment on the then-current economic depression in the United States.

In late 1979, Debbie Harry suggested that Nile Rodgers join her and Chris Stein at a Hip hop event in a communal space taken over by young kids and teenagers with boom box stereos, who would play various pieces of music to which performers would break dance. The main piece of music they would use was the break section of “Good Times.” A few weeks later, Blondie, The Clash and Chic were playing a gig in New York at Bonds nightclub. When Chic started playing “Good Times,” rapper Fab Five Freddy and members of the Sugarhill Gang jumped up on stage and started freestyling with the band; Rodgers allowed them to “do their improvisation thing like poets, much like I would playing guitar with Prince.”

A few weeks later Rodgers was on the dance floor of New York club LaViticus and suddenly heard the DJ play a song which opened with Edwards bass line from “Good Times”. Rogers approached the DJ who said he was playing a record he had just bought that day in Harlem. The song turned out to be an early version of “Rapper’s Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang, which Rogers noted also included a scratched version of the song’s string section. Rogers and Edwards threatened The Sugarhill Gang with legal action, which resulted in them being credited as co-writers on “Rappers Delight”.

In the USA “Rapper’s Delight” did not achieve as much chart success as “Good Times” (peaking at #36 on the U.S. pop chart and #4 on the American R&B charts, compared to Chic’s #1 peak on both charts) but it helped to popularize the bassline and the song, and it became one of the most sampled tracks (and hence one of the most distinctive basslines) in the history of recorded music. Having agreed on a commercial structure for the use of their song in “Rappers Delight”, Edwards and Rodgers agreed to later uses in other songs, subject to their strict criteria.