Bet they feel stupid now
If you don’t know “Le Freak” by name (firstly, shame on you) you’ll definitely recognise it from the first few seconds of it being played.
Selling over seven million copies as a single, it gave Chic and Nile Rodgers their first number one record (on several different charts) and went on to be selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant.”
According to Rodgers however, not everyone was on board with “Le Freak” when it was first recorded.
“The label said it was the worst record they ever heard,” he explained, referring to the band’s record label at the time, Atlantic Records.
Talking to us at Abbey Road Studios, he continued:
“They really didn’t like it. That was one of the biggest fights of my life.”
Telling him how ridiculous that sounds being how successful the record was, he replied: “It’s not [ridiculous] though. When people hear our records first time around some of them aren’t sure what to make of them.
“I’m willing to bet that when the vinyl comes out and other events start happening and people start hearing more of the songs and stuff like that, the things they criticised or weren’t sure about first time around will disappear and they’re going to realise just how catchy the songs are.
“‘Le Freak’ is an insanely catchy song and whatever you may feel about it, whether lyrically or how it goes against the grain of almost anything else, the thing that brings you back to it is that it’s simply catchy sounding.”
Tickets for Nile Rodgers & Chic’s upcoming headline UK arena tour are available at LiveNation.
Dates are as follows:
Dec 13th @ The SSE Hydro, Glasgow
Dec 15th @ Manchester Arena, Manchester
Dec 16th @ Arena Birmingham, Birmingham
Dec 18th @ Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
Dec 19th @ The O2, London
