10 essential Nile Rodgers songs: a beginner's guide

From his disco beginnings as co-founder of Chic to his recent collaboration with Daft Punk, here's a very brief trip through super-producer Nile Rodgers' long history of hit-making – compiled from suggestions posted by readers on our Facebook page.

Listen to all 10 tracks as a YouTube playlist, or you watch each individual video by clicking on the song titles below.

1. Chic – Le Freak (1978)

Written directly after Chic's Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were refused entry from Studio 54 (the "Freak out!" refrain was originally written as "Fuck off!"), this six minute classic is a slice of minimalist disco heaven.

2. Sister Sledge – Lost in Music (1979)

Rodgers and Edwards wrote and produced Sister Sledge's 1979 album We Are Family, which spawned three massive hits – the album's title track, He's The Greatest Dancer, and this irresistible disco classic.

3. Chic – Good Times (1979)

Good Times' famous riff has been sampled countless times, most famously in The Sugarhill Gang's Rappers Delight.

4. Diana Ross – I'm Coming Out (1980)

Diana Ross employed Rodgers and Edwards to spearhead her 1980 comeback, and the resulting album, Diana, delivered in spades. It's opening track was written with Ross's gay fan-base very much in mind, although the singer was apparently unaware of it at the time. The track was sampled to great effect on Notorious BIG's Mo Money Mo Problems.

5. David Bowie – Let's Dance (1983)

After meeting Rodgers in a nightclub and chatting enthusiastically about music, David Bowie hired him to work on his 1983 album Let's Dance. The collaboration was a massive success, extending Bowie's fan-base to a younger crowd, and the title track remains one of his best selling singles

6. Madonna – Like A Virgin (1984)

Selling over twenty million records, the Rodgers'-produced Like a Virgin was the enormously successful pedestal for young, upcoming singer Madonna's new image. Rodgers used live musicians from his Chic albums to alter her previously synthesized sound.

7. Duran Duran – The Reflex (1984)

Duran Duran's biggest selling hit and their first US number one, in no small part thanks to producer Rodgers' innovative use of sampling and funk.

8. Grace Jones – I'm Not Perfect (1986)

Lead single from the album Inside Story, I'm Not Perfect was one of Jones' biggest hits. Her dramatic vocals perfectly compliment Rodgers classic guitar riff.

9. B52s – Roam (1990)

The Atlantans' new wave sound was elevated by Rodgers' produciton on Roam, one of the best tracks from the platinum-selling album Cosmic Thing.

10. Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams – Get Lucky (2013)

Here we fast-forward 23 years to Daft Punk's current single Get Lucky – the song which has had the most amount of streams in one day since Spotify began, and is set to be the sound of summer.

Want more?

'Disco was the only time we were equal. No one cared if you were black or white'
After 25 years at the heart of Chic, Nile Rodgers tells Imogen O'Rorke how his band helped change the world

Nile Rodgers: my greatest mistake
Chic guitarist, songwriter and producer regrets not taking up jazz legend Miles Davis's request to write him a hit

Nile Rodgers: My family values
The musician and producer talks about his family

Chic: 'Everybody needs a little Friday night' – a classic interview from the vaults
In this NME interview from January 1979, the band's late bassist, Bernard Edwards, talks to Danny Baker.

Disco's back as Nile Rodgers tops chart again
Daft Punk's new single breaks Spotify record and becomes a global hit – and it's all down to the magic of dance music pioneer Nile Rodgers