Lionel Richie – All Night Long

“All Night Long (All Night)” is a hit single by American singer and songwriter Lionel Richie from 1983. “All Night Long” it combined Richie’s soulful Commodores style with Caribbean influences. This single reached number one on three Billboard charts (pop, R&B and adult contemporary). In the UK, it peaked at number two on the singles chart.

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Lionel Richie - All Night Long

Lionel Richie - All Night Long (All Night)03:49

Richie wrote the song himself and released it as the lead single from his second solo album, Can’t Slow Down. It went to #1 in America, as did “Truly” from his first album.

Richie was one of the most successful songwriter/performers of the ’70s and ’80s, with a brigade of hits as a solo artist, with his band the Commodores (which he left in 1982), and with various duet partners, including his 1981 chart topper with Diana Ross, “Endless Love”.

A young Richard Marx, before he found fame with his own hits such as “Right Here Waiting,” supplied backing vocals on this track.

This was the first Lionel Richie video to make an impact on MTV. “When MTV started, it wanted nothing to do with black artists,” he said in the book I Want My MTV. “But then I gave them ‘All Night Long’ after Michael (Jackson) had broken down the door. And from then on I was on MTV.”

Richie performed this song at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Among the dancers was a young Cuba Gooding Jr., making his first appearance as an entertainer.

For this performance, Richie wrote a different set of lyrics, which begin:

Hello to you all, these many who are here
Come and join me in this special cheer

“All Night Long” was released on the Motown Label, co-produced with James Carmichael and backed by “Wandering Stranger.” It topped the Hot 100 for four weeks.

The radio edit runs to 4 minutes 16 seconds; the album version to 6 minutes 25 seconds.

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