Lionel Richie & Diana Ross – Endless Love

“Endless Love” – Single by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie from the album Endless Love: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Released June 26, 1981.
Songwriter: Lionel Richie.

This song was from the 1981 film of the same name starring Brooke Shields. The film, which was based on a best-selling novel of the same name, was not very successful, but the song received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and won a Marquee Award in 1982 for Best Original Song.

This ended up being one of the most popular songs of the ’80s, but it began with more modest ambitions. Lionel Richie had risen from saxophone player in the Commodores to lead vocalist and primary songwriter in the group. He was still with them when Endless Love director Franco Zeffirelli asked him to write an instrumental theme along the lines of Henry Mancini’s theme from the 1971 film Love Story. Richie, who was eager to add “film soundtrack” to his resumé, used a piece of music he had written for the Commodores but was never recorded. But then Zeffirelli decided he wanted lyrics. And that it should be a duet, maybe with Diana Ross. So Richie’s assignment went from devising an instrumental theme song to composing and performing on a fully-formed duet with the most popular female vocalist in America. He was up for the challenge.

With lots of experience writing sentimental love songs, Richie penned some lyrics, using hyperbolic lines like “You’re every breath that I take,” befitting the movie title.

This was released on the Motown label, which was home to both artists (the Commodores were a Motown act, and Richie stayed on the label as a solo artist). Ross, though, left Motown two months before it was released, signing a $20 million deal with RCA. Motown made the most of what they had recorded from Ross, and included “Endless Love” on a Diana Ross compilation album called All the Great Hits, which was also released in 1981.

Getting the singers together to record this song was a challenge. They ended up meeting at a recording studio in Reno, Nevada in the early morning of May 8, 1981 following Ross’ concert in nearby Lake Tahoe (Richie came in from Los Angeles). The session began around 3:30 a.m. Less than two hours later, they had their vocals on tape.

Lionel Richie launched his solo career the year after this song was released. He leveraged the “endless love” theme on his first single, “Truly,” which finds him singing, “This love will last forever.” That was also a #1 hit.

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Diana Ross & Lionel Richie Endless Love

Diana Ross & Lionel Richie Endless Love 04:26

The soulful composition became the biggest-selling single of Diana Ross’ career, and her 18th and final career number-one single in the USA (including her work with the Supremes). It is also Richie’s best-charting single, and the first of several hits for him during the 1980s. The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Richie, and was the second song with which Ross was involved that was nominated for an Oscar. It also won a 1982 American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Single. Diana Ross recorded a solo version of the song for her first RCA Records album, Why Do Fools Fall in Love, the duet version being her last hit on Motown. Richie’s solo version was released as track 10 on the 2003 remastered bonus edition of his 1982 album.

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