The Chic Organization - Up All Night (The Greatest Hits)

It's no coincidence that the cover of this compilation mimics that of Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky' single and takes its title from the song's lyrics. Nile Rodgers wrote and played the rhythm guitar part on it and it is, unmistakably, the sound of Chic in 2013.Consisting of 2 hours and 34 minutes of music recorded between 1977 and 1982, Chic not only salvaged the reputation of disco in the late seventies but enhanced it and took it to another level. Over 30 years later their music still sounds relevant and it transcends the disco era. With Rodgers' repetitive and addictive rhythm guitar riffs under-pinned by Bernard Edwards' extraordinary bass grooves, this is sophisticated, elegant, soulful and funky music. Add in the keyboards, strings, vocals and Tony Thompson's percussion and you have some of the most timeless music imaginable.The nine songs by Chic and those by Sister Sledge and Diana Ross need little introduction. The Sister Sledge songs could almost be billed as Chic featuring Sister Sledge given that Rodgers and Edwards wrote, produced, arranged and played on them. Also featured is the 12" version of Debbie Harry's first solo single 'Backfired' (and it did indeed backfire - it flopped in both the US and UK) that's rescued by a killer bass groove from Edwards. Recorded in 1981, Johnny Mathis' 'I Love My Lady' is previously unreleased and it features a Samba backing track and although not particularly bad, it's one of the weaker songs here. Carly Simon's mid-tempo UK top ten hit 'Why' sounds lightweight now but it's (unsurprisingly!) rescued by the bass line. Shelia's 'Your Love Is Good' is smoother than smooth and Norma Jean Wright's 'Saturday' is, like almost everything else here, a joyous dancefloor filler.Often imitated but never bettered (and extensively sampled), this is the perfect introduction to The Chic Organization. The liner notes include a brief but comprehensive overview of Chic and all of the songs featured. To emphasise the timeless appeal of this music, you could slot the aforementioned Daft Punk single anywhere on this two disc set and it wouldn't sound out of place.

'The Chic Organisation', an album long overdue in my opinion as I've waited years for a collection of hits produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards to be assembled in one compilation and in their original format as opposed to being spoiled by re-mixing.The Chic hits of 'Le Freak', 'I Want Your Love', 'Good Times', 'My Forbidden Lover' etc are all contained here (perhaps would have been nice to see some lesser known tracks such as 'Happy Man' and 'Sometines You Win' also included but you can't have everything I suppose.)The work carried out by Rodgers and Edwards on behalf of Sister Sledge ranks among some of the best classy disco records of the late seventies and they're all here in their full glory - 'We Are Family', 'He's The Greatest Dancer', 'Lost In Music', 'Thinking Of You', 'Got To Love Somebody'. The only omission being 'Easy Street'.'Spacer' by Sheila B Devotion, sampled so poorly by many an artist, takes up its rightful stance along side its sister hits as well as Diana Ross's contributions of 'Upside Down' and 'I'm Coming Out'.A couple of earlier productions for Norma Jean and a newly released track by Johnny Mathis also appear.This album certainly carries the feel good factor and scores a ten out of ten for me.

If you like music from this era, it's a must .Some are 12 inch extended versions, even better. "Spacer " is a personal favourite of mine. I would have purchased the cd for that alone but there are numerous great tracks. Go for it. I totally recommend this cd.

For goodness sake, if you don't already own all these records on their original albums, you should buy this collection immediately.You'll know all the tunes collected here, they sound as good as ever but its' great to remind yourself (or learn) how much magic is in this music beyond the main hooks or chorus' that everyone knows - two and three minute intros and outros abound; the musicians wander off their tight disco arrangements just far enough to remind you how good they are, without destroying the groove.A lot of people think Chic are a bit 'wedding band' but when you understand the context of this music, its' influence and just how brilliant the tunes are, in their original form, there's not much to top it.

As with most compilation and greatest hits albums there are a few padding tracks which do not quite fit here.The classics stand out a mile and make the average track sound poor by comparison.Not their fault, its just the best was so good!

Nile Rodgers will undoubtedly shift shed-loads of this CD set - if only to those who caught his performance at this years Glastonbury! There is not much I can add to the actual quality of the tracks or the track listing - everyone's personal choice is bound to be slightly different. The twenty-five tracks presented here are great and this CD set will be played at many parties this summer.This is my first CD purchase to include Amazons AutoRip feature and as it was a pre-order I got an email from Amazon at a couple of minutes past midnight on the day of release inviting me to download the MP3 version. Shortly after that it was on my iPod and I was in the groove with the great man! An excellent feature from Amazon I hope to be able use again with future CD releases; all the advantages and speed of a download with the bonus of a CD for backup - brilliant idea.