Chic · 1979 · Behind the Songs
“Good Times” (1979) comes from Risqué, Chic’s third album, and it is the band’s great statement of confidence.
“Good Times” (1979) comes from Risqué, Chic’s third album, and it is the band’s great statement of confidence. Written by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, the song is built around one of the most recognizable bass lines in dance music, played by Edwards, with Rodgers’s guitar chopping out a rhythm that keeps the track moving from the first bar.
The recording is a study in balance. The bass and drums lock together, the strings add sparkle, and the vocals stay cool and assured. The song does not rush or strain; it rolls forward with the ease of a band that knows exactly what it is doing. That relaxed mastery is part of its appeal — it sounds like a good time because the musicians sound like they are having one.
In Chic’s career, “Good Times” closed the band’s classic late-1970s run on a high point. It summed up everything Rodgers and Edwards had built: elegant arrangements, a rhythm section that could carry a whole song, and a belief that dance music deserved the same care as any other kind of popular music.