''Risqué'' is the third studio album by American

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

band Chic, released on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

on July 30, 1979. One of the records that defined the disco era, the album became highly influential not only within the movement, but also in other styles such as

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an ar ...

and new wave. In 2020, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' ranked the album at number 414 on their list of the

500 Greatest Albums of All Time 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. Humans, and many other animals, have 5 digits on their limbs. Mathematics 5 is a Fermat pri ...

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 The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

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 The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

Warner Music Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and the third-largest in the gl ...

in 1991 (catalogue number 7567-80406-2). The album was digitally remastered and re-issued by Warner Music Japan in 2011.

Critical reception

''Risqué'' received widespread critical acclaim for its lyrics and tone. The ''

Bay State Banner ''The Bay State Banner'' is a weekly newspaper primarily geared toward the readership interests of the African-American community in Boston, Massachusetts. Distributed free of charge, it was founded in 1965 by Melvin B. Miller, who remained the ...

'' 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." In a review for

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, 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 Hedonism is a family of Philosophy, philosophical views that prioritize pleasure. Psychological hedonism is the theory that all human behavior is Motivation, motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. As a form of Psycholo ...

Legacy

" Good Times" has been extensively sampled in other artists' works, most notably in the first top 40 rap single, "

Rapper's Delight "Rapper's Delight" is a 1979 rap song that serves as the debut single of American hip-hop trio the Sugarhill Gang, produced by Sylvia Robinson. Although it was shortly preceded by the Fatback Band's " King Tim III (Personality Jock)", "Rapper ...

" by Sugarhill Gang, that same year. "Will You Cry" was sampled in " Just a Moment" by

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air (S ...

from the 2004 album '' Street's Disciple''.

Accolades

Track listing

Personnel

* Alfa Anderson – lead vocals (1, 4, 6, 7) * Luci Martin – lead vocals (1, 3, 4, 5) *

Fonzi Thornton Alfonso "Fonzi" Thornton is an American vocalist, songwriter, producer and vocal contractor. In a career spanning 40 years, Thornton has sung backing vocals for top artists across many genres of music. His vocal credits can be found on the re ...

– vocals * Michelle Cobbs – backing vocals * Ullanda McCullough – backing vocals * Raymond Jones – keyboards * Robert Sabino – keyboards * Andrew Barrett (Schwartz) – piano *

Nile Rodgers Nile Gregory Rodgers Jr. (born September 19, 1952) is an American musician, songwriter, guitarist and record producer. The co-founder of Chic, he has written, produced, and performed on records that have sold more than 750 million albums and 1 ...

– 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 Gene Orloff (June 14, 1921 – March 23, 2009) was an American violinist, concertmaster, arranger, contractor and session musician. Background The son of a Russian immigrant violin maker, Orloff would try and get his father's violin down from th ...

– 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 *

– 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 Electric Lady Studios is a recording studio in Greenwich Village, New York City. It was commissioned by rock musician Jimi Hendrix in 1968 and designed by architect John Storyk and audio engineer Eddie Kramer. It was completed by 1970. Hendrix ...

(New York, NY) and Kendun Recorders (Burbank, CA) * Mastered at

Atlantic Studios Atlantic Studios is the recording studio network of Atlantic Records. Although the historic recording studio was located at 1841 Broadway (at the corner of 60th Street), in New York City, Atlantic Recording Studios was initially located at 234 Wes ...

(New York, NY)

Certifications

References

External links

''Risqué''
(

Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...

) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed) {{DEFAULTSORT:Risque (album) Chic (band) albums 1979 albums Atlantic Records albums Albums produced by Nile Rodgers Albums produced by Bernard Edwards Albums recorded at Power Station