Customer Reviews

The Definitive Groove Collection

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While I of course knew of Chic from their fabulous singles such as "Le Freak", "Good Times", "Everybody Dance", & "I Want Your Love", it was Bernard Edwards & Niles Rogers (the founding members & core of Chic) varied credits as producers that caught my eye & ears. They've worked with Madonna, Deborah Harry, Diana Ross, Jody Watley, & even Carly Simon to name a few. So I already liked their sound, a unique blend of stylish R&B & pop. At insistence of my best friend (a soul & R&B expert) I purchased "The Definitve Groove Collection" to get a starting point with Chic, & am I glad I did!

Chic more than lives up to their namesake as Edwards, Rogers, along with vocalists Norma Jean Wright, Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin, with Tony Thompson on drums lead with their infectious R&B. More than just disco, or R&B even, Chic effortlessly put out groove based cuts, such as their previously mentioned monster cuts. Strings, bass, great keyboard & synthesizer work, with soulful vocal styling makes for great listening.

Other highlights include the melancholic loner "Soup For One", the shimmering "When You Love Someone", as well as the fab "Chic Cheer" to name a few.

This is the best starting point if you are a casual fan & great for old Chic heads to have all the hits & selected cuts from all their records in one space. "The Definitve Groove Collection" for Chic thrills & sparkles, preparing you for their actual albums. Highly recommended!

The 2 good reasons for purchasing Definitive Groove Collection are the improved sound quality - previous "remastered" issues sound very grainy and faint in comparison - and the post-1980 tracks, which are a revelation for those only familiar with the group's hits. Late Chic was an extremely funky proposition, with solo male vocals and a more definite shift to r'n'b. Tracks like Flash Back and Your Love Is Cancelled transcend their time and sound deliriously atmospheric now. A good overview of a great band, with the (admittedly considerable) chaff edited to a set of sparkling gems.

Rhino released a 2 disc compilation for the disco/R&B act CHIC as part of their "Definitive Groove Collection" series which features a total of 29 tracks. These releases always have 30 tracks (to keep the price at a budget minded 14.99 in terms of royalties) and feature great liner notes about the artist in question along with brilliantly remastered sound. They also have a line of Definitive Rock Collections out as well for the rock field.

The only slight complaint I have is that the 30 track limitation usually with most of the sets leaves space on each CD that more tracks could be put and sometimes Rhino inexplicably puts single edits on them when they had plenty of extra space to put the full album version (like they did on the Foghat Definitive Rock Collection).

The great news about the Chic 2 disc Definitive Groove Collection is that on disc one (which contains all of their huge hits from the 70's and is the best of the 2 CD's) Rhino wisely chose to put the full album versions of the songs on there instead of the edited single versions.

What this means for instance is that you get the full 8 minute 21 second album version of "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsa, Yowsa, Yowsa) and the complete 8 minute 15 second version of "Good Times" for example. Disc 2 (which covers their post 70's output which wasn't as good) has a couple of radio edits on it though.

But even with the couple of edits on disc two, the inclusion of all of the album length songs even with the Definitive Collection limitation of 30 tracks causes each disc to time out close to the 80 minute mark.

Disc one contains 13 tracks and is a little over 78 minutes and has 13 tracks.
Disc two contains 17 tracks and is just a little shy of 77 minutes and has 16 tracks.

As with all of the Definitive Collection releases, the liner notes about the history of Chic is extremely insightful and they also list all of the album sources for each song in addition to the chart positions of the single versions. The sound is absolutely breathtaking as well being remastered with great care that preserves the original sounds while also bringing out clarity that I hear things that I never noticed before in some tracks.

So, even if you just want a single disc compilation of Chic, this is worth picking up for just the first disc alone. The second disc contains some good music but as Chic went along into the 80's/90's they really started to lose their way a bit in comparison.

But as a 2 disc anthology/overview of this band, this 2 disc Definitive Groove Collection winds up being the best Chic release to date. Pick it up!

I'm a disco baby so 70's music was what I grew up on. Chic was a favorite of my parents so I'm very familiar with them. This album is the best Chic compilation to date. It has the favorites like le freak, good times, dance dance dance and my favorite My forbidden Lover. The sound quality is much better than on the last couple of best of albums and there are more tracks,including some lesser known tracks from the 80's as well as some of the stuff done by the new version of Chic. Oh Yeah and as I said before, Still the tightest group.

Super musicality.
Super swing.
Super compositions.
Super sound quality.
A generous 30 songs compilation of top pop music -- elegantly selected from 10 titles ranging from 1977 till 1992. One of the best CD collections I have ever heard. Chic is definitely, very chic.

Man! I can see it clearly... me and all my friends at the club. Everythings right. It's part of you! Anyone who grew up in that era knows CHIC and you cant help but flash-back. If you were listening to CHIC... you were absolutely in your groove. All of those good times come rushing back - and all it takes is for me to sit back, pop on my headphones and listen to ... "I want your love","My Forbidden Lover", "Soup for one"... Awwwww Yee-uh!

This is the best collection of Chic songs. All the hits and some great R&B cuts on this double CD set. The sound quality is superior to other compilation CDs. If you want the best of Chic this is it.

From 1977-1980, Chic was undoubtedly one of the hottest acts in music. Lumped somewhat unfairly into the disco category, Chic's influence grew far beyond disco into pop, rock, modern dance music and of course, hip-hop.

This two-disc collection covers their peak period as well as their post-1980 period.

Disc One is obviously the attraction here since it features all of Chic's biggest hits including "I Want Your Love", "Good Times" and "Le Freak" as well as the much-sampled "Chic Cheer".

Disc Two may be of less interest since it covers Chic's post-disco material, but at least featuring these songs does make this a definitive collection of Chic's work.

Chic Groove collection is filled to the rim with tight bass pumping Rhythm guitar shufflin' grooves that will shake your booty and make you wanna dance till you drop.
Picture disco refined to a diamond polish thats kicked up with a delicious funky edge and you got Chic.
The hits are all here like the rave outs "Le Freak", "Good Times", and "Everybody Dance" but the lesser known album tracks like "Will you cry" may offer up even more reward with their underplayed status and their equally compelling grooves.
This collection covers all the Chic bases well from their 70's heyday to their 80's material.
It's all good either way and if you're a funky groovy disco dance freak then put this collection on and you'll have a butt naked shake your groove thing party till dawn time and you won't regret one second.
Chic wants your love so dish out the dollar and get ready to holla!
See ya on the dance floor.

Club 7

Other ESSENTIAL Disco Funk collections: Bad Girls= Donna Summer, Risque= Chic(Their Masterpiece), All N' All=Earth Wind and Fire, The Payback=James Brown, Stand=Sly and the Family Stone, Fever=Kylie Minogue (Just for fun but flat out sexy club jams from an ultra delicious woman)

ain't nothing like a Chic Groove. Nile Rogers with his trademark Guitar licks along with the Late Great&always in the Pocket Bernard Edwards on Bass set up the trademark Chic sound along with the Late Drummer Tony Thompson holding it down. Chic had that trademark sound that you always knew from a mile away. these songs are still Bumping. they Produced&Created some of the Best Dance Music Ever.Le Freak, Good times,dance,dance,dance, everybody dance are still bumping.