Good Times – Chic | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Pop (#1), R&B (#1) and Dance (#3); 1979
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
You say you’ve never heard of Chic’s smash hit My Feet Keep Dancing? Well, if the execs at Atlantic Records, instead of group leaders Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, had gotten their way, Feet would have been released instead of Good Times.
With a string of Top 10 records under their belt, including the platinum-selling Le Freak, Edwards and Rodgers were making their third album. Both knew they needed a super-strong leadoff single.
Although they liked Feet well enough as a recording – especially its sounds of live tap dancing – Chic’s creators felt strongly that Good Times offered a better shot at success.
So the two persuaded the label brass to side with the song they’d written to counter the press pundits who dismissed Chic’s music as escapist. Fortunately, good times were exactly what the fans wanted.
Just a few months later Good Times helped kick off the rap phenomenon when the Sugarhill Gang used its rhythm track for Rapper’s Delight.
This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- Kenny Gamble
- Leon Huff
Lyrics Written by:
- Kenny Gamble
- Leon Huff
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).