Track Listing

1. Chic Cheer
2. Le Freak
3. Savoir Faire
4. Happy Man
5. I Want Your Love
6. At Last I Am Free
7. Sometimes You Win
8. Funny Bone
9. Funny Bone
10. Everybody Dance

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #59501 in Music
• Released on: 1993-10-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Setting the blueprint for everything we think of when it comes to disco--big afros, white flares, lashings of glamour--Chic shimmied into the limelight at the tail end of the 1970s. But it wasn't until the anthemic "Le Freak" hit the charts that the New York four-piece really took centre stage on the disco dance-floor. Included here, C'est Chic epitomises their genre-defining sound which owed as much to funk, soul and electro as to disco. "I Want Your Love" is an infectious party groover, "At Last I Am Free" is a reflective, emotive number, while "Savoir Faire" is a seductive soundtrack of saxophone and strings. A disco classic, this has been sampled to death by a million rappers and hip hop artists since. --Amber Cowan

CD Description
In the 1970s, disco was dominated by anonymous artists and flash-in-the-pan singles; which is one of many reasons why Chic towers over the era. For starters, Chic was a real band--a tight-knit quintet led by the twin lights of producers/songwriters Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers (also on bass andguitar, respectively). Secondly, Chic created a consistently high calibre of sophisticated dance music that fused funk's rhythmic principles with disco sheen. Between the band's debut and the release of their classic single "Good Times", Chic released C'EST CHIC.
Due largely to Edwards and Rodgers's crisp, articulate production-- which makes the band sound like the JBs on Manhattan's Upper East Side--Chic achieves a perfect cross-pollination of urban and urbane. The streamlined, minimal groove of "Chic Cheer", the album's opener, is a call to the dance floor, and Chic delivers the goods with "Le Freak", a smash single and one of the movement's defining anthems. Another dance hit, "I Want Your Love", with its tubular-bells hook, abuts smooth balladry like "At Last I Am Free". Chic replicated this record's style on subsequent releases, but never equaled its success. C'EST CHIC is a template for how disco should be done.

Customer Reviews

The defining moment in dance music....
Just picture it - you and your mates like metal and prog rock. Anything that had the whiff of commerciality about it was scoffed at. That was me in the late 70's, folks, when Genesis, Yes and Camel were kings in my eyes. THIS was the album to change all that - and not just for me. It had such a profound effect because it didn't destroy my faith in those bands but simply widened my musical horizons. And I was not alone. I knew LOADS of guys who had this album but refused to admit it. Before I knew it I was buying albums by Earth Wind and Fire and things would never be the same.

Classics from beginning to end - Bernard and Nile had THAT sound which proved difficult to resist - you HAD to move to it unless you were dead. This album set the foundations upon which modern dance was based. Where would Hed Kandi be today?

Saw this on Amazon at an unbelievable price and had to go for it. An absolute gem.

discos masterpiece
The follow up to Chic, this album has come in many differing forms, some with Dance Dance Dance and others not. To capitalise on the music of the first album, the uk label released 'Tres Chic' with the same tracks, but in a poor order. It was pulled and a disco classic was born. From the lush cover art to the inner picture of Nile and Nard, this a pure funk/disco album. With the vocals of Lucy and Alfa, Niles iconic playing, Bernards funky bass, tonys tight drumming, Robs keyboard work and people like Luther Vandross in the background it's gonna be good. Now of course everyone knows 'Le freak', but listen to Happy Man, hear the music taking shape as the track builds up into a life of the 70's playboy. Hanging out all night with the jet set and he parties every little chance he gets. While 'At last I am free' can seem to go on it does have great sadness in those vocals and 'Savoir Fair' might seem like practise time, other tracks like 'Sometimes you win' and 'I want your love' (the groups biggest UK hit) show the group and Nile and Nard at their best. Pure disco and brilliant for it. Forget disco drones, this is the real thing.

smoooooooooooooth!
see my review of Risque, because this is more of the same - with smoother production.

Deeply cool.