How Nile Rodgers and Sister Sledge Created the Ultimate Disco Album
In the late 1970s, Sister Sledge were at a crossroads.
The four sisters—Debbie, Joni, Kathy and Kim Sledge—had been recording since the early 1970s, but despite releasing several singles and albums, they had struggled to establish themselves as major stars in the United States.
Their early single Love Don’t Go Through No Changes on Me had done well in Japan, while Mama Never Told Me had charted in the U.K., but neither had turned Sister Sledge into the household name their record label wanted.
They were signed to Atlantic Records, and the pressure to produce a proper hit was mounting. Then came Chic.
Enter Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were already making waves with Chic.
Their combination of Rodgers’ precise rhythm guitar, Edwards’ melodic bass playing and a superb group of musicians had produced hits including Everybody Dance, Le Freak and Good Times.
Atlantic saw an opportunity. Why not put the Chic songwriting and production team together with Sister Sledge? It turned out to be a brilliant idea.
Rodgers and Edwards were brought in to write and produce Sister Sledge’s next album. The result was We Are Family. And what happened next is one of the great stories in Disco.
We Are Family
Released in 1979, We Are Family produced four remarkable songs:
That’s an extraordinary run of songs from a single album. And what’s particularly impressive is that these weren’t simply Disco hits that disappeared when the fashion changed.
Decades later, all four songs still appear on radio stations, DJ playlists and the setlists of working bands.
For a guitarist, that’s a pretty good indication that there’s something worth learning.
1979: The year Nile Rodgers found his groove
It’s worth putting this into perspective. In the same year that Sister Sledge released We Are Family, Chic released Good Times.
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were effectively running two musical operations at once—and producing hit after hit.
You could argue that 1979 was the year these two really found their groove. And the remarkable thing is how recognisable the Chic sound is across both projects.
Listen to Good Times and then Lost in Music. The artists are different, but the rhythmic philosophy is remarkably similar.
The guitar doesn’t need to be loud. It doesn’t need to play complicated solos. It needs to sit precisely inside the groove.
That’s one of the great lessons Nile Rodgers’ playing can teach you.
Lost in Music
Lost in Music was one of the four major singles from We Are Family, with Thinking of You appearing as its B-side!
It’s also a fantastic song to study if you’re learning rhythm guitar. The groove sounds effortless, but there’s a lot going on harmonically.
One of the interesting elements is the use of modal interchange, where chords from a parallel key are introduced to add colour and movement.
This is one of those things that can make a song sound sophisticated without making it feel complicated.
Try playing through the chords first. Then put on the backing track and listen carefully to how the guitar fits into the arrangement.
Finally, try to replicate Nile Rodgers’ rhythm. That’s where the real lesson begins.
You quickly discover that playing a handful of chords is easy. Playing them with the right timing and feel is considerably harder.
He’s the Greatest Dancer
Another of the album’s great tracks is He’s the Greatest Dancer.
It became one of Sister Sledge’s signature songs and, like much of the album, went on to have a life far beyond the original Disco era. Its influence even reached hip-hop.
Will Smith’s 1998 hit Gettin’ Jiggy wit It famously uses elements of He’s the Greatest Dancer. And the story doesn’t stop there.
The instantly recognisable vocal hook in Will Smith’s track—na, na, na, na, na, na, na—comes from Sang and Dance by the Bar-Kays.
So you’ve got a chain of musical references running through several generations: Sister Sledge → Will Smith → the Bar-Kays.
This is one of the things I love about popular music. You start with one song and suddenly you’re following a trail through decades of music.
We Are Family
And then there’s the title track. We Are Family became Sister Sledge’s defining song and gave the album its name.
It’s one of those songs where the title says almost everything you need to know. The message is simple, the chorus is enormous, and the groove is impossible to ignore.
Interestingly, the song wasn’t immediately embraced by Atlantic Records. But once released, it became one of the best-known songs of the Disco era.
In 2017, We Are Family was added to the U.S. National Recording Registry, recognising it for its cultural, historical and aesthetic significance. That’s quite a journey for a song that was initially met with some hesitation.
The Disco Demolition connection
There’s another interesting bit of timing surrounding the album. We Are Family was released in early 1979, only months before the infamous Disco Demolition event in Chicago in July of that year.
The event became a highly symbolic moment in the decline of Disco’s mainstream popularity in the United States.
That meant the album arrived at a fascinating point in musical history. Disco was enormous, but its dominance was already being challenged.
Yet We Are Family survived the change in fashion. That’s because the songs were strong enough to outlive the genre label. And that is perhaps the most important distinction. Great songs don’t necessarily belong to a particular era.
Why We Are Family still works
The success of We Are Family was difficult to repeat. Sister Sledge released Love Somebody Today the following year, again working with Rodgers and Edwards, but it didn’t produce the same run of major hits.
The albums that followed also failed to match the impact of We Are Family.
That’s a useful reminder that even great songwriters can’t manufacture a classic album on demand.
Nile Rodgers himself has described We Are Family as one of the best albums he has ever made. When you look at the four major songs on the record, it’s not hard to understand why.
Chic’s side project?
Because Rodgers and Edwards were simultaneously working with Chic, it’s tempting to think of Sister Sledge as simply a side project. But that doesn’t really do the album justice.
Sister Sledge had their own identity, their own voices and their own history. Rodgers and Edwards provided the songwriting and production framework, but the four Sledge sisters brought the songs to life.
The result was something bigger than either group alone. And in terms of the number of enduring hits produced by a single album, We Are Family can certainly stand alongside Chic’s best work.
The guitarist’s perspective
For guitarists, Sister Sledge is a brilliant gateway into the world of Funk and Disco rhythm guitar.
Start with We Are Family. Then try Lost in Music. Move on to He’s the Greatest Dancer and Thinking of You.
Don’t just learn the chords. Listen to the rhythm. Where does the guitar stop? Where does it come back in? Which beats are accented? How does it interact with the bass and drums?
These details are what make Nile Rodgers’ style so effective. You might look at the chord chart and think, I know these chords.
Then you try to play along with the record and discover that getting the rhythm right is the real challenge. That’s exactly what makes these songs such good guitar lessons.
Building your repertoire
The great thing about learning Sister Sledge tunes is that these songs aren’t just interesting exercises. They’re repertoire.
We Are Family works at parties, weddings and celebrations. He’s the Greatest Dancer gets people moving. Lost in Music is a fantastic groove to have in your back pocket.
And once you’ve learned them, you’re only one step away from exploring more of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards’ work with Chic. That leads you to Good Times, Le Freak and Everybody Dance.
From there, you can follow the trail into Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna and eventually Daft Punk.
That’s what building a repertoire is all about. One song leads to another. One guitarist leads you to another artist.
And before you know it, you’ve gone from learning a few Disco chords to understanding an entire chapter of popular music.
Sister Sledge’s We Are Family isn’t just one of the great Disco albums. It’s a masterclass in songwriting, production, groove and rhythm guitar—and a fantastic place to start if you want to get your guitar moving like Nile Rodgers.
Sister Sledge Tunes | Related Pages
He’s The Greatest Dancer | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play He’s The Greatest Dancer by Sister Sledge using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| Cm7 Dm7 | F#dim7 Gm7 |
Oh, what, wow, he’s the greatest dancer…
Lost in Music | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Lost in Music by Sister Sledge using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and backing tracks.
| C Dm7 | Dm7 | C G | G |
We’re lost in music, caught in a trap…
Thinking of You | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Thinking of You by Sister Sledge using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| Gm7 Dm7 | Eb Bbmaj7 |
Everybody let me tell you ’bout my love…
We Are Family | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play We Are Family by Sister Sledge using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| A (A6) | G (G6) | D (Dadd9) | G11 |
We are family, I got all my sisters with me…
Sister Sledge on the web
