Lionel Richie was born on June 20, 1949 in Tuskegee, Alabama to a middle class family. Richie credits being surrounded by a warm and supportive family and community with helping him believe he could accomplish anything he set his mind to. Richie attended Tuskegee University and formed a series of R&B groups while he was a student there.
In 1968, he joined the group the Commodores as a saxophonist and singer, and Richie’s music career began in earnest when the group signed with Atlantic Records and then Motown. The group churned out multiple hits with Richie helping to write many of them.
In the late 1970s, Richie began to write songs for other artists. The success of his duet with Diana Ross, Endless Love, helped encourage Richie to branch out and began a solo career. His debut album was self-titled and produced three hit singles and sold over 4 million copies. His second solo album, Can’t Slow Down, sold twice as many copies and earned him two Grammy Awards, cementing his place as an international superstar.
Richie continued to churn out hits and performances through the 1980s. His fathers death in 1990 marked a pause in his career with Richie not recording a new album until 1996. The albums Louder Than Words and Time did not match the success of previous albums, but Richie is still respected for his contributions to R&B and contemporary music.
Over the course of his 30 year career, Richie has won a total of four Grammy Awards including one for Producer of the Year. He has also won a Golden Globe Award.
The following video is a biography of how Richie overcame the racism of the Deep South to rise to music stardom. It reveals what he has in common with Rosa Parks, why his grandmother gave up trying to teach him to read music, what sport he was given a scholarship for to attend college and much more.
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Commodores use to be funky back in the day they were never the same when Lionel Richie left ,how come when the bands sound Funky and they,re good somebody in the band wants to go solo and mess it all up?
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Back in the day, I rarely missed a chance to see the Commodores when they came to my area. I loved their sound, style and lyrics, much of it due to Lionel Ritchie. Once he went solo and left his first wife, for whom he wrote, "Three Times A Lady", Ritchie has not held my interest nearly as much. He is a great artist overall, though.
I would have loved to have seen them! But I agree, Lionel solo wasn't as good. (IMO, most groups are better than the members that go solo.)
NICE…HE IS A GREAT SINGER AND I LOVE HIS MUSIC.
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