Chic ~ Le Freak 1978 Disco Purrfection Version

“Le Freak“ was written after a huge disappointment the pair experienced after being denied entry to Studio 54 to see Grace Jones perform. That fateful night was New Year’s Eve 1977 and the duo had been invited by Grace to see her show and then meet to discuss a recording collaboration. The guys embodied the Chic fashion mystique, dressed themselves to the nines for the occasion, only to be shot down. Apparently, Grace had neglected to put them on the list. The doorman’s surliness only added to their misery, but they hung out until 1AM hoping Grace would notice the oversight, who never did. They dejectedly left, picking up a bottle of champagne and walked over to Nile’s apartment to salve their egos. Starting to jam with bass and guitar, they began working some serious music therapy along with some rather rude exhortations that perfectly expressed their disappointment. The first part of the song that came together was Bernard’s guitar and then Niles wrote a bass part to compliment that. The chorus came next along with the spontaneous “F“ words to help them blow off steam. A demo was made and the boys knew they were on their way. A change of lyric of “F*ck Off“ to “Freak Off“ advanced the song one more level and then they blew it into the stratosphere when they changed Off to Out after they found out there was an actual Freak dance out there (remember the Freaky Deaky?). A final name change to “Le Freak“ gave it international appeal miles away from the snarl of a song it started out as. I for one would love to hear the demo, Nile Rodgers could hopefully dig it out someday. At the time, Le Freak spent 5 weeks at #1 pop and R&B, a true crossover juggernaut that became the biggest non Christmas single ever, Warner Bros. biggest single ever and the third most copyrighted song in history after “White Christmas“ at #1 and “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer“ at #2. It is the #8 disco song of all time according to the Billboard “Hot Dance/Disco“ reference book. What am I doing remixing a stone cold classic? I thought maybe some DJ’s would enjoy a integrated version to play off, and I wanted you to hear the mastery of the original’s music and vocal tracks in breaks. 40 years later, this one still kicks butt inciting a stampede to the dance floor. Thank God for Chic, they really did save us from a life of drudgery by giving us the finest disco music ever created and a chance to unburden our cares on the dance floor.