If the measure of a great song is its influence on those who come after, then Good Times, the classic 1979 disco hit from Chic, is among the greatest of all time.
It was probably nothing to do with the lyrics. Nile Rodgers, who wrote the song with fellow band founder Bernard Edwards, described the title as ironic and the lyrics as a reflection on the late 1970s economic recession, but who knew?
Even when people thought they knew what Chic was saying, they often didn’t. Most famously, the line “Our new state of mind” somehow morphed in the popular imagination into “Are you straight or bi?”(Try and work out the lyrics on this clip with Jay Leno).
But it’s the sheer, joyous danceability of Good Times that sent it rocketing to number one and that still has the power to get the stiffest hips and most leaden feet moving, and the infectious grooviness of the base line that has seen it picked up and sampled countless times since. Queen lifted it for “Another One Bites the Dust”, the Sugarhill Gang purloined it for “Rapper’s Delight” and everyone from The Beastie Boys to Busta Rhymes, INXS to Blondie, have leaned on it to one extent or another over the years.
So while appropriation may be the surest sign of musical flattery it also ensures that Good Times lives on a a great song in its own right. You can vote Good Times into the Timeless 50.