After getting to No. 1 on the disco chart at the height of disco's musical ride, it was no wonder that when "Le Freak" debuted at No. 37 the week before that it may take a significant chunk out of the Top 40 countdown.
No one saw this move coming, though.
And as Casey Kasem explained on AT40 in this very week, only two other songs made such significant moves within the Top 40. There was David Seville's "Witch Doctor," which leaped up from No. 36 to No. 4, a move of 32 notches, before that song would hit No. 1 for five weeks. And there was Elvis Presley's classic "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" which leaped up 33 places from No. 35 to No. 2 in November 1960. The next week, that song jumped to the top and spent six weeks at No. 1.
So there was Chic's "Le Freak," the top disco song in the land, about to make the leap of a lifetime in the countdown from Nov. 25, 1978 after debuting at No. 37. It didn't make the of "Witch Doctor" or the 33-point leap of "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" but the move was still memorable.
"Le Freak" made the biggest move within the Top 40 in the entire 1970s, leaping 31 solid notches on this week from No. 37 to No. 6. The next week, it jumped to No. 4, then reached the top spot the week after that. After the song dropped to No. 2 the next week, it bounced back to No. 1 for the last two weeks of December.
But the story didn't end there. After giving way for two weeks at the top, "Le Freak," sitting in the No. 2 spot to start the year, bounced back into the No. 1 spot and spent three more weeks at No. 1 to become the first song in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to hit No. 1 on three different occasions in the same chart run, a total of six weeks at No. 1 and the biggest disco song of all-time.
Still, the story behind "Le Freak" is more unique than the chart occurrence. According to Chic's co-leader and guitarist, Nile Rodgers, the band were guests of singer Grace Jones at the famed Studio 54 discotechque in their native New York City. The group dressed up for a night of hobnobbing and disco dancing in the studio that brought in only the best of the best in its heyday.
When the band reached the front of the club, though, they found trouble. No one had alerted those working the famed "velvet rope" that the group members were allowed in thanks to Ms. Jones. Miscommunication meant that the band was not getting in for an enjoyable night. And it was back at their various places that Rodgers and his partner in crime, bassist and co-leader Bernard Edwards, began to write a song that would be an insult to the club with the original line of "Awwww, freak out!" being "Awwww, f**k you!"
Obviously, no sane radio station was going to play a song with the latter line. But not only did the song send a strong message to the strong-armed lugs of Studio 54, but started a dance craze that, well, no one really knew how the dance went.
Yet, the song is one of the most memorable of the 1970s. And when that song comes on, you know it's time to move your body, even so slightly. And when that opening, "One, two, awwwwww ... " comes on, you know to answer "Awwww, freak out!"
And that 31-point leap to No. 6 got the ball rolling on what would be a memorable chart run that saw the song spend 15 weeks in the Top 10.
Rejection never felt so successful.
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