"Good Times" is a 1979 song composed by Bernard Edwards and
Nile Rodgers. It was first recorded by their band Chic, for
their 1979 album
Risqué. In August of that year, it became the band's
second number one single on both the Billboard Hot 100 and soul
singles chart. Along with the tracks, "My Forbidden Lover", and
"My Feet Keep Dancing", "Good Times" reached number three on
the disco charts The song has become one of the most sampled
tunes in music history, most notably in rap and hip-hop
music.
The song is ranked #224 on
Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All
Time.
The lyrics are largely based on Milton Ager's "Happy Days
Are Here Again." It also contains lines based on lyrics
featured in "About a Quarter to Nine" made famous by Al Jolson.
Nile Rodgers has stated that these depression-era lyrics were
used as a hidden way to comment on the then-current economic
depression in the United States. The line during the chorus,
"Our new state of mind", is infamous for being mistaken as "Are
you straight or bi?"
In late 1979, Debbie Harry suggested that Nile Rodgers join
her and Chris Stein at a Hip hop event in a communal space
taken over by young kids and teenagers with boom box stereos,
who would play various pieces of music to which performers
would break dance. The main piece of music they would use was
the break section of "Good Times." A few weeks later, Blondie,
The Clash and Chic were playing a gig in New York at Bonds
nightclub. When Chic started playing "Good Times," rapper Fab
Five Freddy and members of the Sugarhill Gang jumped up on
stage and started freestyling with the band; Rodgers allowed
them to "do their improvisation thing like poets, much like I
would playing guitar with Prince."
A few weeks later Rodgers was on the dance floor of New York
club LaViticus and suddenly heard the DJ play a song which
opened with Edwards bass line from "Good Times". Rogers
approached the DJ who said he was playing a record he had just
bought that day in Harlem. The song turned out to be an early
version of "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang, which
Rogers noted also included a scratched version of the song's
string section. Rogers and Edwards threatened The Sugarhill
Gang with legal action, which resulted in them being credited
as co-writers on "Rappers Delight".
In the USA "Rapper's Delight" did not achieve as much chart
success as "Good Times" (peaking at #36 on the U.S. pop chart
and #4 on the American R&B charts, compared to Chic's #1
peak on both charts) but it helped to popularize the bassline
and the song, and it became one of the most sampled tracks (and
hence one of the most distinctive basslines) in the history of
recorded music. Having agreed on a commercial structure for the
use of their song in "Rappers Delight", Edwards and Rodgers
agreed to later uses in other songs, subject to their strict
criteria.
This is an incomplete list of songs that either use direct
samples from "Good Times", or feature an original recording
where the bassline or other motifs (particularly that of the
instrumental break) are inspired by the song.