Forever In Vogue (4)

In many respects they became victims of their own success. Having excelled themselves with their early albums, each new song, however good, would always be compared with Le Freak or Good Times. But when recorded by another artist the songs were still a success. Which also happened to artists they worked with, particularly Sister Sledge. Their follow-up album Love Somebody Today (1980) continued the high level of production, writing and arrangement but only achieved a minor hit with the title track. Yet in 1984, when the sisters career was once again flagging, Atlantic issued a popular song from that first Nile and 'Nard album that had strangely been overlooked first time around, Thinking Of You. It was so successful they got Nile to remix Lost In Music and We Are Family for reissue, the former actually charting more impressively than it had five years earlier.

Another reason for the waning success of Chic was due to the fact that they did change. Chic was always the place where Nile's and 'Nard experimented first, and this comes through on their later albums. From the next Chic album Real People (1980) onwards Nile's rhythm guitar became more adventurous, the chords more unpredictable. On Take It Off (1981) they began incorporating the use of synthersizers and drum machines, with their production and arrangements becoming more innovative, while Nile and 'Nard began taking more of the lead vocals. Yet despite including such gems as Stage Fright (ripped off by D'Influence on a remix of their own Hypnotize), So Fine (utilised by Beverly Knight on the original version of Made It Back, the hit version a year later sampled the more obvious Good Times) and Would You Be My Baby it wasn't until their next album that they scored a hit, and then extremely minor, with Hangin' from Tongue in Chic (1982). The same year the pair wrote and produced a soundtrack for the film Soup For One. It featured two new songs by Chic, the theme and Tavern on the Green, a jazzy acoustic guitar track by Nile with no virtually no accompaniment. It also included songs by Teddy Pendergrass, longtime Chic session vocalist Fonzi Thornton and more unlikely artists, in that they weren't connected to the R&B scene, like Debbie Harry and Carly Simon (Why). Typical of their production at this time, Why hooks around a distinctive live drum/drum machine beat, layering 'Nard's relaxed bass, keyboards and reggae influenced riff from Nile. You get the impression they could never be satisfied with looking for inspiration from American R&B sources, and loved to mix different types of music, possibly an offshoot of their equally diverse musical background.

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