- Can't Slow Down · 1983
- The Definitive Collection · 1983
- Tuskegee (Deluxe Edition) · 2012
- Can't Slow Down · 1983
- The Definitive Collection · 1981
- Dancing On the Ceiling · 1986
- Lionel Richie (Expanded Edition) · 1982
- Dancing On the Ceiling (Expanded Edition) · 1985
- Tuskegee (Deluxe Edition) · 2012
- Tuskegee (Deluxe Edition) · 2012
- Lionel Richie (Expanded Edition) · 1982
- Lionel Richie (Expanded Edition) · 1982
- Dancing On the Ceiling (Expanded Edition) · 1986
Essential Albums
- On Lionel Richie's third solo album, the ex-Commodore merges different genres into the glossy R&B sound he became known for. Though a departure from the straight-ahead soul of 1983’s Can’t Slow Down, songs like the pondering “Say You, Say Me” and the festive “Dancing on the Ceiling” have become bonafide classics in the mainstream pop canon. Some 30 years later, this album can be seen as a victory lap, one in which Richie fully embraces his pop stardom and proves that the funk and soul sounds of his previous releases were clearly a thing of the past.
- On Can’t Slow Down, the former Commodores frontman pens a song for every occasion, and the results span the gamut of ’80s pop. An air of unbridled joy and romance permeates everything from the pop-rock synth-boogie of “Running with the Night” to the sweet, slow-dance seduction of “Penny Lover.” While Richie exercises his enviable range (the country waltz of “Stuck on You,” the Caribbean flavor of “All Night Long”), he never loses sight of the fiesta, which promises to outlast the night.
Albums
Artist Playlists
- Monster solo hits from the ex-Commodores superstar.
- Where affecting ballads, buttery vocals, and swaying hips meet.
- His pop-soul smashes influenced R&B stars as well as rockers.
- Refined R&B excursions from the master of soul and poise.
Singles & EPs
Compilations
More To Hear
- Lionel Richie going solo “Truly” brought his career to another level.
- Luke chats with fellow American Idol co-host Lionel Richie.
About Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie’s genius for crisply soulful pop and broadly inclusive romantic balladry flowed from his unique upbringing. Being born in 1949 Alabama meant being surrounded on all sides by signs of segregation. But Tuskegee, where Richie grew up, was a small, vibrant center of Black power, art, and learning—so much so that he and his friends called it “the bubble.” The Commodores formed there in the late '60s, with Richie playing sax and singing, then signed to Motown, where they became a one-band jukebox stuffed with both groove-inducing funk (1974’s “Machine Gun,” 1977’s “Brick House”) and swoon-worthy suaveness (1978’s “Three Times a Lady”). They were stars, but the group became their own bubble constricting Richie’s broad songwriting talent and appeal, and in the late ’70s he started stepping out.As his ballads continued to effervesce, Richie shifted from R&B to a more adult contemporary sound: He wrote “Lady” for Kenny Rogers (1980) and recorded “Endless Love” with Diana Ross (1981). With hip-hop in ascendance, his solo music was a mellow shelter amid the young genre’s revolutionary promise, focusing on familiar sounds and timeless ideas—like calypso and baby-making on 1983’s “All Night Long.” Today you can’t even say “Hello” without invoking the guy, let alone words like “Easy,” “Still,” or “Truly,” to pull just a few names from his long stream of relaxed-fit, sensual singles. Even a topical song like “We Are the World,” which he cowrote in 1985, was all-inclusive in its plea for African famine relief. Richie’s 2012 Tuskegee featured remakes of some of his hits that sound gently soulful, or maybe they sound country-esque, but always universal and moving. A bubble big enough for most.
- HOMETOWN
- Tuskegee, AL, United States
- BORN
- June 20, 1949
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul