Nile Rodgers & CHIC Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Nile Rodgers & CHIC Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Started
June 9, 2020
Petition to
Ramon Hart
Signatures: 207Next Goal: 500
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Why this petition matters

Started by Ramon Hart

Question: What is the cost of a Walk of Fame star ceremony? A: $55,000 after selection. The money is used to pay for the creation and installation of the star, as well as maintenance of the Walk of Fame.

https://walkoffame.com › faq
Frequently Asked Questions - Hollywood Walk of Fame

 

We Are "CHIC- STARS" & "WE ARE FAMILY" A Hollywood Walk of Fame Star application carry a $30,000 [£19K]‘sponsorship fee’ once accepted. Half goes to the Hollywood Historic Trust, which maintains the Walk of Fame, and the rest funds the creation of the star. We Can Do It CHIC - STARS "We Are Family"!!!

Chic (/ʃiːk/ SHEEK, French: [ʃik]), currently called Nile Rodgers & Chic, is an American band that was organized in 1972 by guitarist Nile Rodgers and bassist Bernard Edwards.[1] It recorded many commercially successful disco songs, including "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" (1977), "Everybody Dance" (1977), "Le Freak" (1978), "I Want Your Love" (1978), "Good Times" (1979), and "My Forbidden Lover" (1979). The group regarded themselves as a rock band for the disco movement "that made good on hippie peace, love and freedom".[2] In 2017, Chic was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the eleventh time.[3]

Chic
Past members
Bernard Edwards
Tony Thompson
Luther Vandross
Alfa Anderson
Raymond Jones
Sammy Figueroa
Andy Schwartz
Robert Sabino
Tom Coppola
Norma Jean Wright
Luci Martin
Karen Milne
Cheryl Hong
Marianne Carroll
Fonzi Thornton
Michelle Cobbs
Karen Karlsrud
Valerie Haywood
Jocelyn Brown
Lenny Pickett
Dolette McDonald
Marty Celay
Brenda White
Curtis King
Nathaniel S. Hardy, Jr.
Dave Weckl
Briz
Dennis Collins
Jenn Thomas
Tawatha Agee
Sonny Emory
Sterling Campbell
Andreas Levin
Princessa
Tanya Ramtulla
Robin Clark
Suzette Henry
Audra Lomax Parker
Christine Gordon
Randall Bell
Christopher Max
Chazz Oliver
Mac Gollehon
Louie King
Jill Jones
Philippe Saisse
Omar Hakim
Sylver Logan Sharp
Jessica Wagner
Finbar Evans
Melissa Jiménez
Gerardo Velez
Cherie Mitchell
Selan Lerner
 
HistoryEdit
1970–1978: Origins and early singersEdit
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards met in 1970, as session musicians working in the New York City area. They formed a rock band named The Boys and later The Big Apple Band, playing numerous gigs around New York City.[4] Despite interest in their demos, they never garnered a record contract. They were later in the band New York City, which had a hit record in 1973 with "I'm Doing Fine Now", charting in the UK. The original demo tapes were made by DJ/studio engineer Robert Drake, who first played lacquer records while DJing at a New York after hours club, Night Owl. New York City broke up in 1976.

After Walter Murphy released the single and album "A Fifth of Beethoven" under the name Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band, they changed their name to Chic.

Inspired after attending a concert by English glam rock band Roxy Music, Rodgers began developing the idea for a group whose music and image would form a seamless and immersive whole, taking additional influence from the anonymous, make-up wearing American rock band Kiss.[5] During 1977, Edwards and Rodgers recruited drummer Tony Thompson, formerly with Labelle and Ecstasy, Passion & Pain, to join the band; they performed as a trio doing cover versions at various gigs.[4] Thompson recommended keyboardist Raymond Jones, 19, to join the band, as he had worked with him in Ecstasy, Passion & Pain. Needing a singer to become a full band, they engaged Norma Jean Wright by an agreement permitting her to have a solo career in addition to her work for the band.[4] Using a young recording engineer, Bob Clearmountain, they created the track "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)". As a result, Chic became a support act. The title of the first song recorded as Chic was "Everybody Dance", which was on their first album.

Under contract with Atlantic Records company, during 1977 they released the self-titled debut album Chic, which was an extension of the demonstration tape. But Edwards and Rodgers were convinced that to produce the band's recording studio sound when performing live with sound and visuals, they needed to add another female singer. Wright suggested her friend Luci Martin, who became a member during late winter/early spring of 1978.[4] Soon after the sessions ended for the debut album, the band members began to work on Wright's self-titled debut solo album Norma Jean, released during 1978. This album included the successful nightclub song "Saturday". To facilitate Wright's solo career, the band had agreed to contract her with a separate record company.

The legal details of this contract eventually forced Wright to end her relationship with the band during mid-1978, but she participated in the sessions for Chic-produced Sister Sledge album We Are Family (1979).[4] She was replaced as a singer by Alfa Anderson, who had done back-up vocals on the band's debut album. For the Sister Sledge project, Edwards and Rodgers wrote and produced "He's the Greatest Dancer" (originally intended to be a Chic song), in exchange for "I Want Your Love" (intended originally to be performed by Sister Sledge).

1978–1979: "Le Freak" and "Good Times"Edit
The group endeavored to express "deep hidden meaning" in every song they wrote.[2] During late 1978, the band released the album C'est Chic, containing one of its better-known tracks, "Le Freak". It was created in a jam session in Edwards' apartment, after they had failed on New Year's Eve 1977 to meet with Grace Jones at New York's nightclub Studio 54. The original refrain "Aaa, fuck off", intended for the doormen of Studio 54, was replaced that night with "Aaa, freak out", after trying a version with "Aaa, freak off".[6] The resulting single was a great success, scoring No. 1 on the US charts[4] and selling more than six million copies. It was the best-selling single album ever of Atlantic's parent company, Warner Music, until Madonna's "Vogue" in 1990.[7] On March 21, 2018 "Le Freak" was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".[8]

The next year, the group released the Risqué album and the lead track "Good Times", one of the most influential songs of the era. The track was the basis of Grandmaster Flash's "Adventures on the Wheels of Steel" and the Sugarhill Gang's breakthrough hip hop music single "Rapper's Delight". It has been sampled since by many dance and hip hop acts, as well as being the inspiration for Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust" (1980), Blondie's "Rapture" (1981), Captain Sensible's "Wot?" (1982) and, two decades later, the bass line for Daft Punk’s "Around the World" (1997).

At the same time, Edwards and Rodgers composed, arranged, performed, and produced many influential disco and R&B records for various artists, including Sister Sledge's albums We Are Family (1979) and Love Somebody Today (1980); Sheila and B. Devotion's "Spacer"; Diana Ross's 1980 album Diana, which included the successful singles "Upside Down", "I'm Coming Out" and "My Old Piano"; Carly Simon's "Why" (from 1982 soundtrack Soup for One); and Debbie Harry's debut solo album KooKoo (1981).[4] An album recorded with Johnny Mathis was rejected by his label and remains unreleased.

Chic also introduced a young session vocalist, Luther Vandross, who sang on Chic's early albums.

1980s–1990s: Disbanding, other projects, a brief reunionEdit
After the anti-disco reaction at the end of the 1970s, the band struggled to obtain both airplay and sales, and during the early 1980s they disbanded. Rodgers and Edwards produced records for a variety of artists together and separately. The Chic rhythm section of Rodgers, Edwards, and Thompson provided instrumental back-up for the successful 1980 album Diana for Diana Ross that ended up selling over ten million albums internationally, with Rodgers and Edwards producing. It yielded the four weeks at number-one single "Upside Down" and the top ten song "I'm Coming Out". "My Old Piano" was also a top ten single for Ross in the United Kingdom. Rodgers co-produced David Bowie's 1983 album Let's Dance and was also responsible largely for the early success of Madonna during 1984 with her Like a Virgin album, which again reunited Rodgers, Thompson, and Edwards, with keyboardist Rob Sabino and collaborators Jeff Bova, Jimmy Bralower and Oren Bar. During 1984, Rodgers was involved with a project of the band The Honeydrippers and helped produce that band's only EP.[4] Thompson and Edwards worked with the group Power Station on its successful 1985 album, as well as Power Station main singer Robert Palmer's solo success Riptide that same year, both of which Edwards produced. 1985 saw Rodgers producing the Thompson Twins successful Here's to Future Days album, and appearing live with them and Madonna at Live Aid in Philadelphia. During 1986, Rodgers produced the fourth album from Duran Duran, Notorious. Bernard Edwards later gave Duran Duran's bassist John Taylor the bass guitar he played on many of Chic's songs. Taylor had long been a Chic fan, his style influenced greatly by Edwards' playing.

After a 1989 birthday party where Rodgers, Edwards, Paul Shaffer, and Anton Fig played old Chic songs, Rodgers and Edwards organized a reunion of the old band. They recorded new material – a single, "Chic Mystique" (remixed by Masters at Work) and subsequent album Chic-ism (1992), both of which charted— and played live all over the world, to great audience and critical acclaim.

During 1996, Rodgers was honored as the Top Producer in the World in Billboard Magazine, and was named a JT Super Producer. That year, he performed with Bernard Edwards, Sister Sledge, Steve Winwood, Simon Le Bon, and Slash in a series of commemorative concerts in Japan. His longtime musical partner Edwards died of pneumonia at age 43 during the trip on April 18, 1996. His final performance was recorded and released as Live at the Budokan (1999). Chic continued to tour with new musicians.

2000–2013: Compilations, nominations, and venuesEdit
 Rodgers and Barnes onstage in 2013.
Chic released four new albums during the 2000s (three compilations, and one live album): The Very Best of Chic (2000), Good Times: The Very Best of the Hits & the Remixes (2005), A Night in Amsterdam (2006), and The Definitive Groove Collection (2006). A box set, Nile Rodgers Presents The Chic Organization, Vol.1: Savoir Faire would be released in 2010, covering Rodgers and Edwards' productions both for Chic and for other artists up to the original break-up of the partnership in 1983.

Thompson died of kidney cancer on November 12, 2003 at age 48.[9]

In October 2010, Rodgers began his fight with prostate cancer. In October 2011, he released his autobiography entitled Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny.[2] On July 29, 2013, Rodgers posted on Twitter that he was cancer free.[10]

In 2013, Chic with Nile Rodgers headlined the West Holts Stage on Friday night at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK, and played a variety of tracks both from Chic and from Nile Rodgers' extensive list of songs he had worked on for other artists. Noel Gallagher noted "My favorite act at this year's Glastonbury, when I went, was not the Rolling Stones, as great as they were; was not the Arctic Monkeys, as good as they were; was not Disclosure, as good as they were; but it was Chic. They were fucking mega. Absolutely out of this world."[11]

A compilation album, Up All Night (2013), credited to The Chic Organization and featuring their productions for various artists between 1977 and 1982, was released the following Monday, 1 July, and entered the UK Compilation Albums Chart at number two a week later.

Chic and Nile Rodgers played the iTunes Festival in London on September 14, 2013. They opened British The X Factor live show on 2 November 2013 for Disco week. They performed a medley of hits including "Le Freak", "He's the Greatest Dancer" and "Good Times".

Rodgers announced in 2013 that he was working on a new Chic album, based on rediscovered tapes of unreleased material from the early 1980s. He also stated that Daft Punk is interested in working on at least one song of the unreleased material with him. Rodgers co-wrote and performed on three songs off Daft Punk's 2013 Grammy Award-winning Album of the Year Random Access Memories including the Grammy Record of the Year "Get Lucky" with the duo and Pharrell Williams.

 

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  • Ramon Hart