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Welcome back to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine magazine about the hits from coast to coast.

I'm Chris Malanfi, chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why Is This Song Number

One series? On our last episode, we talked about the formation of Sheik, the suave disco-era

band conceived by guitarist Nile Rogers and bassist Bernard Edwards

as a collective of top-notch players offering sophisticated, jazzy, and instrumentally complex

dance music.

But I never give the change, because all I do is dates. My mom said my friends are in my feet.

Dance and they were even implored you to dance right in the lyrics.

By 1979, Sheik were not only about to score one last major hit.

They were going to set a musical template for the 80s,

helping to spawn both a new genre, hip-hop, and the sound of pop's next wave.

Sheik's all-time most immortal hit, the song that would inspire countless other artists and songs was itself inspired by an earlier hit.

In a story that may be apocryphal, Nile Rogers claims he was trying to come up with a variation on his favorite Cool in the Gang song.

I want. favorite Cool in the Gang song. Hollywood is a highlight of Cool in the Gang's early years as a hard funk group.

It reached number one R&B, number six pop in 1974, and Nile Rogers loved its relentless groove. The guitar line that he came up with

while noodling in the studio was inspired by, but not a copy of Hollywood Swinging.

As you can hear in this YouTube recreation, it has the same strut, the same chicken scratch chug,

but its own unforgettable melody. Now, here's the amazing thing. As catchy as Nile's guitar line is,

it's not even the most iconic part of the song.

That would be the percolating walking bass line

that Bernard Edwards laid down in the studio.

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