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| Lionel Richie and The Commodores |
| The Commodores were formed in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1967. Tuskegee, a small college town was the home to the Mighty Mystics which featured Lionel Richie and Thomas McClary. And the Jays who had William King and Milan Williams. When the four got together on the campus of the Tuskegee Institute they knew they were onto something. With the later addition of Walter "Clyde" Orange and Ronald LaPread the classic line-up was in place. By 1968 they had garnered a well deserved reputation as the premier local band when they took a charity gig in New York city. In the Big Apple they met Benny Ashburn a business savvy entrepreneur who would eventually become their manager. Two years of performing on the road and travelling between N.Y., Alabama and all points in between landed them a shot with Atlantic Records. Bluesman Swamp Dogg produced the 1971 single "Keep On Dancing." The single stalled and so too did their option with the label. But while performing at New York's Turntable Club their act was caught by Suzanne De Passe. The Motown executive was searching for an opening act for the label's newest discovery, The Jackson 5. Lionel and the boys jumped at the offer. The ensuing tour gave the Commodores valuble exposure and so impressed De Passe and Motown that they signed the group to a contract. Between touring with The Jackson 5 and preparing for their upcoming album, 1973 was an exciting year. Veteran Motown producer James Anthony Carmichael was brought in to help prepare their debut album. The first single from the group was a spastic disco driven instrumental. "Machine Gun" landed at #-7 R&B and #-22 Pop and even went to #-1 in Nigeria! They were off to a good start but had yet to refine the parameters that would mark their hit years. The group's second album, 1975's "Caught In The Act," produced an even bigger charter with the #-19 "Slippery When Wet." The song was less disco-oriented and more R&B-ish. The third album "Movin' On" produced the #-5 "Sweet Love." "Sweet Love" was the first of what became their trademark heartwarming ballad hits. Ironically while their success was imminent, the members continued to maintain their college courses, even stopping in mid-tour for exams. Their fourth album was the breakthrough album that defined the remainder of their career. 1976's "Hot On The Tracks" featured one ballad hit, "Just To Be Close To You" (#-7) and one disco/funk number "Fancy Dancer" (#-39). From this point forward the group would waffle from ballad hits to club/funk hits for the duration of their career. 1977 was an even bigger year for Lionel and the guys as they embarked on their first wolrd tour as headliners. Two major hits from the "Commodores" album, the lilting #-4 "Easy" and the #-5 disco thriller "Brick House" cemented their stature at Motown and as a premier group. |
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| 1978 was a very visible year for the group beginning with their appearance alongside Donna Summer in "Thank God It's Friday." Their soundtrack entry "Too Hot Ta Trot" was a Top 40 smash. That summer they had their first #-1 with "Three Times A Lady." The song knocked the Rolling Stones ("Miss You") from it's perch and became one of Motown's biggest selling singles ever. That year also marked the first crack in the infrastructure of the group. It was becoming clear to industry insiders and fans that Lionel, the ever gifted songwriter, was quickly outgrowing the confines of a group. Though the actual split came later it was apparent that Richie was yearning to try new options and to possibly explore a solo career. |
| 1979's "Midnight Magic" produced the #-5 hit "Sail On" and yet another #-1 hit with "Still." 1980's "Heroes" generated the singles "Old-Fashioned Love" and "Wonderland" both hit the Top 40 but just barely. 1981's "In The Pocket" generated their last club hit with the sparkling "Lady (You Bring Me Up)." The failure of Motown to issue a 12" single held the song back from possibly peaking at #-1 in the clubs. Six months later Lionel was gone in full pursuit of a solo career as a solo performer, writer and producer. And then six months after that came the devasting news that Benny Ashburn had dropped dead off a heart attack. "That's when everything seemed to fall apart" said Thomas McClary, who left the group soon after to record his own Motown solo album before exiting show business altogether. "I didn't have it in me anymore to continue." After the dismal performance of 1983's post Richie/McClary "Commodores 13" the group was pretty much given up for dead. But after recruiting former Heatwave member and vocalist J.D. Nicholas the group rebounded with 1985's "Nightshift" a moving tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson. The song earned them a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance. Since then the recordings have been fewer and definitely less than commercially successful. But the re-formulated Commodores continue to tour and delight audiences around the world. Lionel Richie on the other hand became one of the most successful male solo artists of the 1980's. 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. 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 #-3 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 #-1 |
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| 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." !2" singles of "All Night Long," "Love Will Find A Way" and "Running With The Night" made him a dance floor favorite. "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. Richie was a triple threat with the help of his videos, not only was he dominating the Pop charts but the Club charts and the Adult Contemporary lists as well. |
| 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 12" 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. 1987 saw Richie's nine-year streak of writing at least one number one single (a feat matched only by Irving Berlin) come to an end. As a matter of fact, Richie all but disappeared from the music business, simply choosing to take some time off after nearly two decades of recording and performing. His 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" (which wasn't as successful on the pop charts). 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 urban 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 new jack swing and hip-hop were criticized as awkward. 1998's "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. Three years later, on the heels of enduring a very public and bitter divorce with his second wife Diane, Richie released "Just For You." |
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