Norma Jean Wright

And we were one of the first acts that they produced.

So I think the very first success that they had was Norma Jean.

Mm-hmm.

And then, um, then we, we were placed, actually placed with them to do, um, an- another album project, which, uh, I s- I suppose that was also an experiment because they had these new artists and they didn't know what to do with them.

But Nile and Bernard continued to make records with Chic and both wound up having wildly successful careers as producers and as studio and touring musicians for decades to come after this.

One of the singers for Chic was Norma Jean Wright, and Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards were able to get her signed to a solo recording deal as well and produced her debut album in 1978, which was called Norma Jean.

The debut single from Norma Jean was Saturday.

It was a moderate hit in the dance clubs, but Norma Jean's solo career never really took off, and she only had one more minor club hit in 1979 before putting out a string of failed singles that continued to emerge into the mid-1980s.

Gloria Gaynor was several years into what at the time was looking like it might be a one-hit wonder career.

She came from a musical family in Newark, with her older brothers belonging to a touring gospel band that she had never been allowed to join because she was female.