Admittedly, he has a reputation as an unabashed schmaltz merchant and even his best songs are loaded with gooey sentimentality. But cheese has a vital place in pop and who could argue that Richie's biggest hits have passed music's ultimate test – decades after first conquering the charts, audiences of every age know all the words by heart. Certainly there's nothing ironic or winking about the effervescent thrills to be derived from the timeless All Night Long (All Night) or the gloriously smoochy Easy. Angel (2000) Richie's comeback album, Renaissance, was not kindly reviewed, with the vast line-up of producers and engineers deemed to gone too far in trying to make the singer sound contemporary and edgy.

However, the single Angel recalled the poise and glitter-ball charm of his Eighties output and was a reminder that, though Richie's relevance as a recording artist had dimmed, his voice remained as pure and powerful as in his heyday. Deep River Woman (1986) Richie was at his most heartfelt and soulful on yet another stand-out from the four million-selling Dancing On The Ceiling. A collaboration with country group Alabama, Deep River Woman saw the artist reconnect with his southern United States origins (he was raised in Tuskegee, Alabama) and was released as a double a-side with Ballerina Girl. The song foreshadowed his 2012 album Tuskegee, in which he returned to his country roots, dueting with such giants of the genre as Shania Twain and Willie Nelson. Stuck On You (1984) An early foray into country music, Stuck On You pairs the singer's husky warble with twanging guitars and minimalist arrangements.

Paul Barry / Lionel Richie / Mark Taylor Ballerina Girl Lionel Richie Spotify Brick House Lionel Richie / Ronald LaPread / Milan Williams / Thomas McClary / Walter Orange / William King Brick House 2003 feat. Trina / Rob Zombie Lionel Richie / Ronald LaPread / Milan Williams / Thomas McClary / Walter Orange. Tuskegee Lionel Richie to stream in hi-fi, or to download in True CD Quality on Qobuz.com.

Thankfully it is more low-key than the sleeve shot of Richie in a blinding checkered shirt and stetson hat straight out of Roy Rogers. Though it challenged perceptions of Richie as strictly a soul artist, the song was nonetheless favourably received by fans and reached number three in the United States and number 12 in the UK. Truly (1982) His first solo single proper is a string-soaked weepy in the vein of Commodores hits such as Easy and Three Times A Lady. Truly spent a week at number one in the United States, confirming the singer had a future as a stand-alone artist. The accompanying, self-titled album, was a smash as well. Having made the fateful decision to leave The Commodores, Richie was off to the races as a solo performer.

We Are The World (1985) Co-written with Michael Jackson, the charity single was a response to Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas? Initially, the project was to have been a three way collaboration between Jackson, Richie and Stevie Wonder – but Wonder had to cry off due to recording commitments.

Free Download Game Baseball Vs Zombie Jar more. With a tight deadline, Jackson and Wonder retreated to the Jackson family estate and pieced the number together over two torturous weeks. The lyrics are understood to have been largely written by Jackson, with Richie supplying the melody. The song was laid down in the studio through January 1985. The famous 'group chorus' featuring Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, The Jacksons, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles and others was recorded with many of the artists arriving straight from the American Music Awards in downtown LA. Running With The Night (1983) Here was undeniable proof that the king of mushy balladry could get his groove on when required. The second single from break-though solo record Can't Slow Down, Running With The Night is a full-blooded funk excursion, with over-the-top guitar from Toto's Steve Lukather and future MOR star Richard Marx on backing vocals.

It was a hit, reaching number nine in the UK charts. Endless Love (1981) This epic duet with Diana Ross was the theme song for a critically-panned Brooke Shields vehicle of the same name (the film is today remembered chiefly for handing Tom Cruise his big screen debut). Endless Love rejuvenated Ross's career, giving the singer her biggest selling solo single up to that point and earned Richie an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. It would go on to be the second highest grossing seven inch of 1981, behind Kim Carnes's Bette Davis Eyes. The track was a hit all over again when covered by Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey in 1994. Sail On (1979) Richie wrote some of his most enduring tracks while fronting The Commodores.

The rasping, mid-tempo Sail On harked back to the bluesy sensibility of the group's formative years in Tuskegee, Alabama. But it possessed a radio-friendly slickness that hinted at the direction Richie's writing would take through the Eighties. For reasons that remain a mystery to this day, the video features a man whooshing about on a hang glider. Still (1979) A highlight of his years with The Commodores, Still is one of the most lyrically and melodically sophisticated pieces Richie has penned.

A broken-hearted dirge that wears its heart prominently on its lapel, it features never-bettered vocals by the singer. He still performs it in concert, inevitably reducing the audience to goose-bumps.

Penny Lover (1984) Co-written with Richie's then wife Brenda Harvey-Richie, this was the fifth hit single from the multi-platinum Can't Slow Down album. It is a quintessentially syrupy Richie ballad, with swooning lyrics and a glossy arrangement at the time regarded as an attempt by Richie to attract a 'mainstream' (i.e. White) audience. The video is noteworthy for a steamy sequence in which Richie snogs his love interest with his shirt three quarters-removed.

Best keep some smelling salts to hand. Lady (You Bring Me Up) (1981) One of Richie's last Commodores hits before going solo was written by the group's music director and keyboardist William King.

But it was Richie's tingling croon that elevated the tune above the merely maudlin. With his profile soaring, he exited The Commodores shortly afterwards, to the disgruntlement of his now ex band-mates. Se La (1987) One of five hit hits from Dancing On The Ceiling, Se La featured reggae-style rhythms, ice-cool synths and a cod-funk refrain reminiscent of The Police. 'Se La' is believed to derive from 'Selah', a Biblical term meaning a gesture of quiet reflection.

It is unclear if this has anything to do with the video, which consists largely of Richie standing next to a roller-coaster at Coney Island. Three Times A Lady (1978) Still a staple of Richie's live set, the gloriously gloopy Three Times A Lady was a highlight of The Commodore's number one album Natural High. It has been covered by artists as widely flung as country star Kenny Rodgers and comedian Bill Bailey. The enigmatic title came from a conversation Richie overhead between his parents: his father, channelling Meat Loaf, had told his mother 'I love you, I want you I, need you'. Hence, Richie later explained, 'three times a lady'.

Hello (1984) The chorus refrain of 'Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?' Is arguably the best known line Richie has ever written. The song features a memorable guitar solo from famed session player Louis Shelton (Simon and Garfunkel, The Jackson 5, Neil Diamond). Fantastically smoochy Hello is beloved to this day and confirmed the singer as one of the great love song writers of his era.

It has gone on to a strange afterlife, with alternative rocker Lissie incorporating it into her live performances and cult electronica group The Field sampling it on the trippy A Paw In My Face. Serves You Right (1982) With his first solo album, Richie had to prove he could do more than serve up reheatings of the gushing ballads with which The Commodores were synonymous. He demonstrated his determination to escape the easy listening pigeonhole with this mercurial opening track, a hip-waggling second cousin to Michael Jackson's Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. It was the sound of an artist tearing up the road-map and starting over. Say You, Say Me (1985) Say You, Say Me is as close as Richie has come to a stripped-down lament. It was written for the film White Nights, a Cold War drama about a Soviet ballet dancer defecting to the West. However, the song was omitted from the soundtrack album on the insistence of Richie's label (which wanted the track to appear exclusively on the forthcoming Dancing On The Ceiling ). Spartan Wars Empire Of Honor Hack Tool.

It topped charts in the United States and Europe and received an Academy Award and Golden Globe for best original song. Dancing On The Ceiling – 12 inch version (1986) The single version is winningly rollicking but to appreciate the genius of what is arguably Richie's enduring moment you owe it to yourself to experience the full seven and half minute 12 inch mix. This stresses the tune's irresistible groove in addition to making clear that, far from a draw-back, silliness is its chief strength. Dancing On The Ceiling would go on to divide opinion, with Blender magazine including it in a countdown of the 50 Worst Songs Of All Time. Pish – who can hate a track about dancing on the ceiling when, in the accompanying the video, the singer appears to be literally dancing on the ceiling? All Night Long (All Night) (1983) The zinging chorus was inspired by a doctor friend of Richie's who, after stopping by the singer's for dinner, remarked he would be working 'all night long'. One of Richie's earliest solo hits, it marked a break from the torch-songs with which he achieved success through his 15 years fronting The Commodores.

The single was heavily rotated on MTV, making Richie one of the first African-American artists championed by the fledgling network. Easy (1977) The laid-back outlook articulated in the lyrics was inspired by the artist's childhood in the 'small southern towns' of Alabama.

Richie wrote Easy following a break-up, though the track emphasizes the positives of being newly single: the narrator is an 'easy come/easy go' type who refuses to be dragged down by romantic reversals. The song would later give the grunge-era band Faith No More their biggest hit when they released a tellingly reverential version in 1993.

This album is Mastered for iTunes. Lionel Richie’s successful migration from the R&B of The Commodores to pop parallels country music’s migration from cowboy hats to fitted caps. Tuskegee is the logical result. Country stars like Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, and Jason Aldean duet with Mr. Richie on some of his biggest hits. Songs like “Stuck on You” and “Hello” get relocated to Nashville with help from Darius Rucker and Jennifer Nettles, respectively.

“Endless Love,” featuring Shania Twain, updates the classic love song with a new chemistry. And when Richie and Willie Nelson get to the break in “Easy” (“I wanna be high!”), it’s a voyage of kinship and rediscovery that ignites Tuskegee. This album is Mastered for iTunes.

Lionel Richie’s successful migration from the R&B of The Commodores to pop parallels country music’s migration from cowboy hats to fitted caps. Tuskegee is the logical result. Country stars like Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, and Jason Aldean duet with Mr.

Richie on some of his biggest hits. Songs like “Stuck on You” and “Hello” get relocated to Nashville with help from Darius Rucker and Jennifer Nettles, respectively. “Endless Love,” featuring Shania Twain, updates the classic love song with a new chemistry.

And when Richie and Willie Nelson get to the break in “Easy” (“I wanna be high!”), it’s a voyage of kinship and rediscovery that ignites Tuskegee. After leaving the Commodores, Lionel Richie became one of the most successful male solo artists of the '80s, arguably eclipsed during his 1981-1987 heyday only by Michael Jackson and Prince. Richie dominated the pop charts during that period with an incredible run of 13 consecutive Top Ten hits, five of them number ones. As his popularity skyrocketed, Richie moved further away from his R&B origins and concentrated more on adult contemporary balladry, which had been one of his strengths even as part of the Commodores.

After 1987, Richie fell silent, taking an extended break from recording and touring before beginning a comeback toward the end of the '90s. He settled into a relaxed recording and touring schedule.

Through the early 2010s, his albums switched between sophisticated R&B, surprisingly pop-oriented material, and even contemporary country. Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr., was born on June 20, 1949, in Tuskegee, Alabama, and grew up on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute, where most of his family had worked for two generations prior. While attending college there, Richie joined the Commodores, who went on to become the most successful act on the Motown label during the latter half of the '70s. Richie served as a saxophonist, sometime vocalist, and songwriter, penning ballads like 'Easy,' 'Three Times a Lady,' and 'Still' (the latter two became the group's only number one pop hits). Although the Commodores maintained a democratic band structure through most of their chart run, things began to change when the '70s became the '80s.

In 1980, Richie wrote and produced country-pop singer Kenny Rogers' across-the-board number one smash 'Lady,' and the following year, Richie's duet with Diana Ross, 'Endless Love' (recorded for the Brooke Shields film of the same title), became the most successful single in Motown history, topping the charts for a stunning nine weeks. With the media's attention now focused exclusively on Richie, tensions within the Commodores began to mount, and before the end of 1981, Richie decided to embark on a solo career. Richie immediately set about recording his solo debut for Motown.

Titled simply Lionel Richie, the album was released in late 1982 and was an immediate smash, reaching number three on the pop charts on its way to sales of over four million copies. It spun off three Top Five pop hits, including the first single, 'Truly,' which became Richie's first solo number one.

If Lionel Richie made its creator a star, the follow-up, Can't Slow Down, made him a superstar. Boasting five Top Ten singles, including the number ones 'All Night Long (All Night)' and 'Hello,' Can't Slow Down hit number one, eventually sold over ten million copies, and won the 1984 Grammy for Album of the Year. Such was Richie's stature that he was invited to perform at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a spectacular stage event that was broadcast worldwide.

In 1985, Richie put his superstar status to work for a greater good, joining Michael Jackson in co-writing the USA for Africa charity single 'We Are the World'; the all-star recording helped raise millions of dollars for famine relief. By the end of the year, he was on top of the charts again with 'Say You, Say Me,' a ballad recorded for the film White Nights but not included on the soundtrack album. The song was slated to be the title track on Richie's upcoming album, but delays in the recording process prevented the record from being released until August 1986, by which time the title was changed to Dancing on the Ceiling (in order to promote Richie's next single release). Three more Top Tens followed 'Say You, Say Me,' as did 'Se La,' which became the first of Richie's solo singles not to reach the pop Top Ten. Overall, Dancing on the Ceiling didn't match the success of Can't Slow Down, but it still sold an impressive four million copies, although Richie's reputation for sentimental ballads was beginning to incur a backlash in some quarters. Richie's nine-year streak of writing at least one number one single (a feat matched only by Irving Berlin) came to an end in 1987.

As a matter of fact, Richie all but disappeared from the music business, exhausted after two decades of recording and performing, and also occupied with taking care of his ailing father. Richie's silence was broken in 1992, when Motown released a compilation titled Back to Front; in addition to some of his solo hits and a few Commodores tracks, Back to Front also featured three new songs, including the number one R&B hit 'Do It to Me.' Richie wasn't bitten by the recording bug again until 1996, by which time he'd endured his share of personal loss: his father had passed away, and his marriage to wife Brenda -- the muse behind some of his most successful ballads -- had fallen apart. In approaching his comeback, Richie attempted to update his sound to reflect a decade's worth of developments in R&B. The result, Louder Than Words, was a moderate success, reaching the Top 30 and going gold. However, it didn't produce any major hit singles, and Richie's nods to contemporary production trends were criticized as awkward. Released in 1998, Time found Richie in a more familiar element, relying on his signature sound with only slight musical updates.

However, the album flopped, spending only a few weeks in the lower reaches of the charts. Richie's next album, Renaissance, was released to a favorable reception in Europe in late 2000; it was issued in the U.S. In early 2001. It fared best in the U.K., where it went platinum.

Three years later, on the heels of enduring a very public and bitter divorce with his second wife, Richie released Just for You, another album that was most successful in the U.K. The 2006 album Coming Home -- released the same year his popularity in certain Arab states was covered by mainstream media outlets -- found him working with an all-star cast of collaborators including Jermaine Dupri, Raphael Saadiq, Sean Garrett, and Dallas Austin. In the U.S., it reached the Top 10 of the pop and R&B charts.

The wholly modern Just Go, released in 2009, featured assistance from Stargate, Terius 'The-Dream' Nash, Christopher 'Tricky' Stewart, and Akon. His next release was much different: 2012's Tuskegee featured fully countrified updates of hits from his past, including 'Easy' (with Willie Nelson), 'Hello' (with Jennifer Nettles), and 'Dancing on the Ceiling' (with Rascal Flatts).

The album reached the top of the U.S. Pop and country charts. ~ Steve Huey • ORIGIN Tuskegee, AL • BORN June 20, 1949.