Here you have 2 of my favorite producer-couples and one of my favorite singers all together on 1 track by Luther Vandross! The song is called "Shine" and will appear on "The Ultimate Luther Vandross" a new compilation released the 22nd. The cd contains his best songs and also this song and another song called "Got You Home" both produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Shine in particular is based on Chic's "My Forbidden Lover" and is a very nice Luther song. It's remarkable how less Jam & Lewis added musically on top of the Chic sample, just some drums and keys. Also a shame shy Luther didn't work with Jam & Lewis that much, only on the "Best things in life are free", the duet with Janet Jackson. buy it here

Today (my birtday!) Nile Rodgers released 2 unique video's on his website www.nilerodgers.com in the members section. As he states there: "In honor of Bernard Edwards 10th anniversary of his ascension, Nile has released never before seen CHIC video interviews from the early 80s. Nile found this rare footage in his basement while working on the new CHIC album." Well, these video's ARE unique! You can see and hear them rehearsing "Love And Be Loved" from the unreleased Johnny Mathis album (great tune btw!) together with Fonzi Thornton. They're talking about  why Fonzi sings and about their busy year producing 40 songs in 8 months, it's simply a must see for any CHIC fan!

It was a rumour, Nile Rodgers talked about it but now it's real! The Shapeshifers new album Sound Advice contains the track Sensitivity which is a collaboration of him with Shapeshifters. Basically it is CHIC with the Shapeshifters since they used a demo track given to them by Nile of the unreleased CHIC production from 1981. This original song was done by Johnny Mathis on his album that was called I Love My Lady. You can clearly hear CHIC on this track that was on the Mathis album as Love And Be Loved. Nile playing his guitar, the strings and Bernard playing a very cool basline, it's a flashback in time! The song starts familiar with Nile (?) counting off  "1,2,3,4.." and at the end you hear the strings playing the I Want Your Love tune..  Hopefully Sony/Columbia will come to their senses and finally release the Johnny Mathis album!! buy it here

Had this classic CHIC album (containing Good Times) for a long time, a genuine german pressing which I bought in the early 80's from the little pocket money I had back then as a teenager... In my search for a better US copy I found this US promo copy recently! It only has the big Atlantic review sticker on the front and the gold Pomo imprint on the right upper corner. It sounds better then my german copy, also the sleeve is manufactured with a better quality paper. The CHIC biography explains the concept about the sleeve which portrayed in a humerous way the roles each member had in the band.. Rodgers as the gigolo, Martin as the maid, Anderson as the lady of the house, Thompson as the butler and Edwards as the man of the house. buy it here

Found this in one of my searches for CHIC related sites, all because I'm reading the biography and this re-activated my interest in the CHIC Organization. Apparently this promo release (Cotillion DMD 229) of Sister Sledge's Reach Your Peak from their 2nd Edwards/Rodgers produced LP is different from the album version. I never heared it and had to listen closely to hear the difference, which is at the end where they stretched the instumental part about a minute longer to a total of 5:26. The b-side contains the same version.