Chic's 'Good Times' Celebrated as One of the Top 10 Dance Songs of All Time
Yesterday marked the 47th anniversary of the release of Chic's "Good Times," one of the most iconic songs of the disco era and a "load-bearing hit of 20th century music," according to Billboard.
Speaking of Billboard, when the publication released its take on The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time in 2025, "Good Times" was found near the top of the list at No. 10.
"Good Times" a song for all times
Written by Chic co-founders Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers, "Good Times" became the group's second Billboard No. 1 hit, joining 1978's "Le Freak."
"Good Times" topped the Billboard chart on August 18, 1979 and "captured the carefree spirit of the disco scene at its commercial zenith," Billboard wrote in 2025.
"Soon after its release, The Sugarhill Gang (illicitly) lifted Bernard Edwards' classic bassline for their own game-changing track "Rapper's Delight," helping to spread hip-hop to every corner of America," Billboard's Thomas Smith added. "It remains a song that brings people to the dancefloor no matter the occasion or format."
Rolling Stone also ranked "Good Times" as the No. 68 song of all time on its most recent ranking of the top 500 songs ever.
About that bassline
As Billboard wrote, Sugarhill Gang borrowed from Edwards, and with good reason. In 2022, the bassist's work on "Good Times" was named the No. 1 bassline of all time by Bass Player Magazine.
The bassline on Chic's 1978 hit "Everybody Dance," is also out of this world, but "Good Times" is on a different level musically overall.
"What we do is we break it down to almost nothing, and then we rebuild the track in the listeners' ears. You hear one instrument coming in at a time," Nile Rodgers told Rolling Stone. "You really hear us take it to a higher art form in the song ‘Good Times.'"
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 5, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 10:48 AM.