Summer days are running shorter, but summertime fun gets hotter by the minute! If you are at a public arena event soon, and get caught on the "kiss cam," remember the song below from 1979, constructed by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.

These two guitarists founded Chic, a dance music band that should be in the Rock Hall of Fame! I'll tell you why.

In the late 1970s, 'dance music,' or the popular term 'disco' became a pejorative.

Through the years dance music has always been popular, but not at the expense of "that old time rock and roll" as the disco cynics cried out by the end of the 70s.

'Disco' became too popular. Yes, a lot of it was awful. What I like the most about Chic is that they defined 'the best of' the dance genre to perfection.

Good Times

Although their output of hits was somewhat lacking, they were crossover chart toppers...

• 1978 - "Good Times" was #1 on both the pop and R&B charts
• 1979 - "Le Freak" was #1 on both the pop and R&B charts

With only nine songs charted on the R&B charts, it's a stretch for Chic to capture the embrace of the Rock Hall.

Still, if there is one group to enter the Hall as an acknowledgement of the impact of the disco days, Chic is the one.

Big brownie points go to Edwards & Rodgers for producing hits for David Bowie, Duran Duran, Sister Sledge, Madonna, Diana Ross, and others.

Nile Rodgers continues to tour, primarily in Europe, where the legacy of Chic lives!

Group bassist Bernard Edwards died of pneumonia in 1996 at age 43. Chic drummer Tony Thomson passed battling cancer in 2003 at age 48.

I highly recommend Nile Rodgers' book, Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny, published in 2011.

It's an excellent inside story about Chic's triumph from New York City obscurity to hit making and super producer status. I enjoyed reading it.

My Forbidden Lover is Chic

Here's Chic's "My Forbidden Lover," one of their songs that just scrapped into the top 35 on the R&B Charts. Check out the sophistication that the group brought to their dance music.

Nile Rodgers and Chic continue that tradition today.

This version is from a live appearance on German television. Some you know that I was the program director of an English language FM talk radio station in Berlin, Germany (operated from the USA out of Washington, DC).

It was the only radio station ever licensed to NPR. I tell the story of how the German authorities licensed the station to the public media network in my book Powerhouse Radio: Rough Roads, Radiance, and Rebirth.

Here are two videos for you to enjoy. After Chic, my bonus video shares news of a Literacy Nation free book fair event I'm engaged with, in the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, PA.

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