Risqué (album)

Risqué is the third studio album by American disco band Chic, released on Atlantic Records on July 30, 1979. One of the records that defined the disco era,^[3] the album became highly influential not only within the movement, but also in other styles such as hip hop, art rock and new wave.^[4] In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 414 on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[5]

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Release

Risqué includes three classic Chic hits; "Good Times" (#1 US Pop, #1 US R&B June 23, 1979, #5 UK), "My Forbidden Lover" (#33 US R&B, #43 US Pop October 13, 1979, #15 UK) and "My Feet Keep Dancing" (#42 US R&B, #101 US Pop December 8, 1979, #21 UK). Risqué reached #5 on the US albums chart and #2 on the US R&B chart. It has been certified Platinum by the RIAA for sales over 1 million copies. It peaked at #29 in the UK and was certified Silver by the BPI.

Risqué was released on compact disc by Atlantic Records/Warner Music in 1991 (catalogue number 7567-80406-2). The album was digitally remastered and re-issued by Warner Music Japan in 2011.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[4]
Christgau's Record Guide	A−^[6]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[7]
Mojo	^[8]
MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide	^[9]
Pitchfork	9.4/10^[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[11]
Smash Hits	8½/10^[12]
Sounds	^[13]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	9/10^[14]

Risqué received widespread critical acclaim for its lyrics and tone. The Bay State Banner wrote that "one hears lyrics that are sometimes almost indictments and other times reflective... The beat is more aggressive, the sound tougher and the vocals—while still repetitive and delivered flatly—are arranged and produced so that they demand attention and focus in quickly on a song's sentiments."^[15]

In a review for BBC, Daryl Easlea called the album "one of the greatest exhibits in the case for disco's defence," and saying that it was "Chic's most sustained artistic statement, a celebration of a 70s that was collapsing under its own excess and hedonism."^[16]

Legacy

"Good Times" has been extensively sampled in other artists' works, most notably in the first top 40 rap single, "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang, that same year. "Will You Cry" was sampled in "Just a Moment" by Nas from the 2004 album Street's Disciple.

Accolades

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Blender	United States	The 100 Greatest American Albums of All time^{[citation needed]}	2002	36
Dave Marsh and Kevin Stein		The 40 Best of Album Chartmakers by Year^{[citation needed]}	1981	7
Robert Dimery		1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die^{[citation needed]}	2013	*
Rolling Stone		The Essential 200 Rock Records^{[citation needed]}	1997	*
Rolling Stone		The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time^[17]	2020	414
Tom Moon		1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die^{[citation needed]}	2008	*
The Guardian	United Kingdom	100 Albums that Don't Appear in All Other Top 100 Album Lists^{[citation needed]}	1999	34
		1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die^{[citation needed]}	2007	*
		My Favourite Album Series^{[citation needed]}	2011	*
		Guardian Writers' Favourite Albums Ever^{[citation needed]}	2013	17
Mojo		Mojo 1000, the Ultimate CD Buyers Guide^{[citation needed]}	2001	*
Mojo		The Mojo Collection, 3rd and/or 4th Edition^{[citation needed]}	2003/2007	*
Paul Morley		Words and Music, 5 x 100 Greatest Albums of All Time^{[citation needed]}	2003	*
NME		Albums of the Year^{[citation needed]}	1979	23
NME		NME's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time^{[citation needed]}	2013	208
Q		The 50 Best Albums of the 70s^{[citation needed]}	1998	45
The Rough Guide		Soul: 100 Essential CDs^{[citation needed]}	2000	*
Gilles Verlant	France	300+ Best Albums in the History of Rock^{[citation needed]}	2013	*
Les Inrockuptibles		50 Years of Rock'n'Roll^{[citation needed]}	2004	*
Philippe Manœuvre		100 Necessary Albums^{[citation needed]}	2014	*
Rock & Folk		The 300 Best Albums from 1965-1995^{[citation needed]}	1995	*
		The Best Albums from 1963 to 1999^{[citation needed]}	1999	*
		555 Albums from 1954-2014^{[citation needed]}	2014	*
Télérama		The Best Albums of All Time^{[citation needed]}	1993	*
(*) designates lists that are unordered.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Good Times"	8:08
2.	"A Warm Summer Night"	6:10
3.	"My Feet Keep Dancing"	6:38

Side two
No.	Title	Length
4.	"My Forbidden Lover"	4:39
5.	"Can't Stand to Love You"	2:56
6.	"Will You Cry (When You Hear This Song)"	4:06
7.	"What About Me?"	4:09

Personnel

Alfa Anderson – lead vocals (1, 4, 6, 7)
Luci Martin – lead vocals (1, 3, 4, 5)
Fonzi Thornton – vocals
Michelle Cobbs – backing vocals
Ullanda McCullough – backing vocals
Raymond Jones – keyboards
Robert Sabino – keyboards
Andrew Barrett (Schwartz) – piano
Nile Rodgers – guitars, vocals
Bernard Edwards – bass guitar, lead vocals (3)
Tony Thompson – drums
Sammy Figueroa – percussion
Jean Fineberg – saxophones
Alex Foster – saxophones
Barry Rogers – trombone
Jon Faddis – trumpet
Ellen Seeling – trumpet
The Chic Strings:
- Valerie Heywood – strings
- Cheryl Hong – strings
- Karen Karlsrud – strings
- Karen Milne – strings
Gene Orloff – concertmaster

Tap Dancers on "My Feet Keep Dancing"

Eugene Jackson
Fayard Nicholas
Sammy Warren

Production

Bernard Edwards – producer for Chic Organization Ltd., arrangements and conductor
Nile Rodgers – producer for Chic Organization Ltd., arrangements and conductor
Bob Clearmountain – sound engineer
Jim Galante – assistant engineer
Jeff Hendrickson – assistant engineer
Peter Robbins – assistant engineer
Jackson Schwartz – assistant engineer
Raymond Willard – assistant engineer
Dennis King – mastering
Carin Goldberg – art direction
Ken Ambrose – photography
All songs recorded and mixed at The Power Station (New York, NY)
Additional recording at Electric Lady Studios (New York, NY) and Kendun Recorders (Burbank, CA)
Mastered at Atlantic Studios (New York, NY)

Certifications


Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)^[18]	Silver	60,000^{^}
United States (RIAA)^[19]	Platinum	1,000,000^{^}
^{^} Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

^ "Chic singles".
^ "Chic singles".
^ Hamsley, David (2015). To Disco, with Love: The Records That Defined an Era. Flatiron Books. p. 285. ISBN 978-1250068453.
^ ^a ^b Henderson, Alex. "Risqué – Chic". AllMusic. Retrieved February 4, 2016.
^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020. Retrieved October 27, 2020.
^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Chic: Risque". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor and Fields. ISBN 0-89919-026-X. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
^ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Chic". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
^ Brown, Geoff (October 2018). "Three Cheers!". Mojo. No. 299. p. 39.
^ MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. 1996. p. 137.
^ Beta, Andy (December 12, 2018). "Chic / Sister Sledge: The Chic Organization 1977–1979". Pitchfork. Retrieved December 26, 2018.
^ Sisario, Ben (2004). "Chic". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 161. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
^ Starr, Red (September 6–19, 1979). "Albums". Smash Hits. Vol. 1, no. 20. p. 25.
^ Silverton, Peter (August 11, 1979). "Chic: Risqué (Atlantic K50634)". Sounds. Retrieved October 27, 2020 – via Rock's Backpages.
^ Walters, Barry (1995). "Chic". In Weisbard, Eric; Marks, Craig (eds.). Spin Alternative Record Guide. Vintage Books. pp. 81–82. ISBN 0-679-75574-8.
^ Lane, George (30 Aug 1979). "Shades of Blue". Bay State Banner. No. 47. p. 21.
^ Easlea, Daryl (2011). "Review of Chic - Risqué". BBC. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
^ "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 22 September 2020.
^ "British album certifications – Chic – Risque". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
^ "American album certifications – Chic – Risque". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved December 17, 2019.

External links

Risqué (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)

v t e Chic
Bernard Edwards Nile Rodgers Tony Thompson Alfa Anderson Luci Martin Norma Jean Wright Fonzi Thornton Michelle Cobbs Nathaniel S. Hardy, Jr. Omar Hakim Robert Sabino Sylver Logan Sharp Luther Vandross Diva Gray Robin Clark
Studio albums	Chic (1977) C'est Chic (1978) Risqué (1979) Real People (1980) Take It Off (1981) Soup For One (1982) Tongue in Chic (1982) Believer (1983) Chic-ism (1992) It's About Time (2018)
Live albums	Live at the Budokan (1999) A Night in Amsterdam (2006)
Compilations	Les Plus Grands Succès De Chic: Chic's Greatest Hits (1979) Freak Out: The Greatest Hits of Chic and Sister Sledge (1988) Megachic: Best of Chic (1990) Dance, Dance, Dance: The Best of Chic (1991) The Best of Chic, Volume 2 (1992) Everybody Dance (1995) Dance, Dance, Dance & Other Hits (1997) The Very Best of Chic & Sister Sledge (1999) The Very Best of Chic (2000) Good Times: The Very Best of the Hits & the Remixes (Chic & Sister Sledge) (2005) The Definitive Groove Collection (2006) Up All Night (2013)
Singles	"Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)" "Everybody Dance" "Le Freak" "I Want Your Love" "Good Times" "My Forbidden Lover" "My Feet Keep Dancing" "Rebels Are We" "Real People" "Stage Fright" "Soup for One" "Hangin'" "Chic Mystique" "I'll Be There"
Related articles	Discography "Rapper's Delight" "Lady (Hear Me Tonight)"

This page was last edited on 23 January 2024, at 15:24

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