Lionel Richie's "Can't Slow Down" (1983): Track by Track

<v Speaker 1>Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
<v Speaker 1>Be Serious Podcast. I am here with my co host
<v Speaker 1>of all co hosts, mister Jason Colvin. Jason, how you doing,
<v Speaker 1>man or? As they say in Africa, jambo jumbo.
<v Speaker 2>Hello, d You're the one I'm looking for.
<v Speaker 1>Tell me how to win your heart? Man, I haven't
<v Speaker 1>got a clue.
<v Speaker 2>Well, my friends, the time has come to raise the
<v Speaker 2>roof and have some fun.
<v Speaker 1>Guys, we are here to talk about Lina Richie's second
<v Speaker 1>solo album, Can't Slow Down, and guys, just to give
<v Speaker 1>you an idea. Eight songs on the album, five of
<v Speaker 1>them were released as singles. All five of them hit
<v Speaker 1>the top ten, two of them hit number one. It
<v Speaker 1>is one of the best selling albums of the eighties
<v Speaker 1>and was album of the year.
<v Speaker 3>This is a giant It's a gigantic album.
<v Speaker 2>When you and I talked about it beforehand, we both
<v Speaker 2>had this album in our house, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I can remember little kids sitting on the floor.
<v Speaker 1>You've got the record player on the shelf above your
<v Speaker 1>head because you're so small, and flipping through those albums
<v Speaker 1>and seeing Lionel Richie's smiling face on that kind of
<v Speaker 1>wicker chair that he's looking at it at you off
<v Speaker 1>of a very light blue veranda.
<v Speaker 2>You know, it was a very very well received album
<v Speaker 2>for parents and kids alike.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I loved the songs on this. I can remember
<v Speaker 1>listening to this LP growing up. It is a part
<v Speaker 1>of my blood. If you will.
<v Speaker 2>This is a panty dropper for our parents, right.
<v Speaker 1>Oh gross, let's not think about that.
<v Speaker 2>Okay. So you mentioned that this is one of the
<v Speaker 2>biggest selling albums of the eighties.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, Yeah, I'm gonna blow your socks off of this.
<v Speaker 1>You ready for this? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>This is the eighteen h best selling album of the eighties.
<v Speaker 2>It sold more than Pyromania Synchronicity nineteen eighty four Licensed
<v Speaker 2>to Ill. Wow, this is a huge album. It is
<v Speaker 2>also the third best selling album of nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>And we've talked before, nineteen eighty four maybe one of
<v Speaker 2>the best years of music ever.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, it is. It is literally a year that will
<v Speaker 1>never be recreated. The artistry, the albums, of the songs,
<v Speaker 1>the music that came out in nineteen eighty four was
<v Speaker 1>a pinnacle that shall not be reached together.
<v Speaker 2>I totally agree. Listen to this top ten real quick
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna wow you right off the bat. Okay, so
<v Speaker 2>Number ten seven and Ragged Tiger by Duran Duran. We've
<v Speaker 2>talked about that album. We haven't covered it track by track,
<v Speaker 2>but Duran Duran Huge. Number nine in nineteen eighty four
<v Speaker 2>was the Footloose soundtrack. We've covered that album track by track. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>go back and check it out. Number eight Synchronicity also
<v Speaker 2>covered it, covered that one track by track. Number seven
<v Speaker 2>Eliminator by a Zezy Top.
<v Speaker 1>We have that one coming up.
<v Speaker 2>That one we'll be on the schedule for later this year.
<v Speaker 2>Number six nineteen eighty four by Van Halen.
<v Speaker 1>Well, we definitely have covered that in one of our
<v Speaker 1>very first episodes.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I would like to break that one down, go
<v Speaker 2>a little deeper.
<v Speaker 1>On the track by track on that one. We should.
<v Speaker 2>Number five You're gonna laugh. Color by Numbers by Culture Club.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not gonna laugh. That was another LP that was
<v Speaker 1>in the collection when I was a little.
<v Speaker 2>You've been after me to do this one track by track,
<v Speaker 2>telling you it is a monumental album.
<v Speaker 1>I remember those faces in all their little circles.
<v Speaker 2>You're right, we need to do that one.
<v Speaker 1>Yes.
<v Speaker 2>Number four An Innocent Man by Billy Joel.
<v Speaker 1>We are comparing that album to this album. This is
<v Speaker 1>our matchup. I mean, two gigantic hits of nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 1>Can't wait to talk about that. That's right.
<v Speaker 2>Number three Cancelo down of course. Yes, Number two Sports
<v Speaker 2>by Huey Lewis, which we've covered and man, one of
<v Speaker 2>my favorite albums. Track by track, we did that one.
<v Speaker 2>And number one of course, the Thriller. Okay, let's talk
<v Speaker 2>about mister Lionel Richie.
<v Speaker 1>Say, okay, So Lionel Ritchie was born in Alabama, Yes,
<v Speaker 1>grew up in Tuskegee. Actually restored the house that he
<v Speaker 1>grew up in, came back and restored it. It was on
<v Speaker 1>the Tuskegee University campus. Get this, It was given to
<v Speaker 1>his family by Booker T.
<v Speaker 3>Washington.
<v Speaker 1>WHOA right, Wow, Yeah, so Booker T. Washington. I'm sure
<v Speaker 1>probably in a lot of states they've got a big
<v Speaker 1>school that's the Booker T. Washington School. In our area,
<v Speaker 1>it is the same case. But the actual Booker T.
<v Speaker 1>Washington gave Lionel Ritchie's family their home that he grew
<v Speaker 1>up in.
<v Speaker 2>Incredible.
<v Speaker 1>He ended up going to Tuskegee University and was an
<v Speaker 1>economics major minored in accounting. He actually went on a
<v Speaker 1>tennis scholarship.
<v Speaker 2>That When I found that, I was like, you have
<v Speaker 2>got to be kidding, because he looks like like one
<v Speaker 2>of the least athletic people I've ever seen.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, yeah, I mean the way he dances. He's a
<v Speaker 1>little he's a small guy, but I mean those tennis
<v Speaker 1>players are not usually but guys. Right. Then, despite his
<v Speaker 1>major in school, he gives his dad a call one
<v Speaker 1>day and says, Dad, I've got to join this music group.
<v Speaker 1>We are going to be the Black Beatles.
<v Speaker 2>How Hey, he grew up in a home where his
<v Speaker 2>grandmother was a classically trained pianist and music was just
<v Speaker 2>kind of a big part. They sang in church. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>is a traditional religious church musical family. And now he's
<v Speaker 2>going to be the Black Beatles.
<v Speaker 1>Keep in mind how many years he's been doing this, right,
<v Speaker 1>grew up with that family life. How many you know,
<v Speaker 1>fifty years in the music business and he cannot read
<v Speaker 1>or write music. It's crazy. Come on, that's crazy. Same
<v Speaker 1>thing for Eddie van Halen, right.
<v Speaker 2>It's the same thing for Billy Joel.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so joined the Commodores, and I mean there's a
<v Speaker 1>whole history there, but their first big hit, surprisingly since
<v Speaker 1>obviously we've got the soulful voice of Lionel Richie plus
<v Speaker 1>the other guys in the Commodores, it was an instrumental.
<v Speaker 2>It was an instrumental. That song is called machine Gun.
<v Speaker 2>Came out in nineteen seventy four.
<v Speaker 1>I know the song from growing up, but it was
<v Speaker 1>also big in the Booge Nights soundtrack, which I wore
<v Speaker 1>out in the nineties.
<v Speaker 2>For sure, You've got Lionel Richie's voice at your disposal,
<v Speaker 2>and your first hit is an instrumental.
<v Speaker 1>It's crazy. It's crazy.
<v Speaker 2>So within the Commodores, he's one of three singers and
<v Speaker 2>one of like five songwriters. And we can get into
<v Speaker 2>the Commodore's maybe at a later date, but basically they
<v Speaker 2>would take turns. You know, you would get your song,
<v Speaker 2>I would get my song, he would get his song,
<v Speaker 2>and you trade off. Well, it's like the Beatles, right,
<v Speaker 2>and Lionel Richie was the love song.
<v Speaker 1>Guy Swammy.
<v Speaker 2>I'm Easy in a funk band. He's the guy producing
<v Speaker 2>love songs right. Well, after a while he starts getting
<v Speaker 2>these love song hits, uh huh, songs like Easy, like
<v Speaker 2>Sunday Morning three times a lady. You compare that to
<v Speaker 2>like brick House, which he also co wrote. But the
<v Speaker 2>guys in the Commodores started to get fed up with
<v Speaker 2>Lionel Richie love songs, okay, little jealousy well, and he
<v Speaker 2>starts making a whole lot more money because the writing
<v Speaker 2>credits for these starts to pay off a.
<v Speaker 1>Lot more sure, and he's writing songs for other people
<v Speaker 1>at this time too. I mean, he and Diana Ross
<v Speaker 1>are doing stuff together.
<v Speaker 2>Kenny Rogers was the first one who came to him
<v Speaker 2>and said, hey, I want you to write a song
<v Speaker 2>for me. And he sits down at the piano and
<v Speaker 2>he says, well, here's what I've got. Da da da
<v Speaker 2>da da da da da Lady, Da da da da
<v Speaker 2>da da da da da da And Kenny Rogers is like,
<v Speaker 2>I really like it. Fill in the da da das.
<v Speaker 2>Let's do it right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. That song goes number one in nineteen eighty Lady.
<v Speaker 2>For so many years I thought I'd never find you.
<v Speaker 1>Fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>Nineteen eighty one rolls around and Motown decides to pair
<v Speaker 2>up Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross. Huh, and they come
<v Speaker 2>up with a song Endless.
<v Speaker 1>Love and yr may tell me you big, huge, massive,
<v Speaker 1>hit huge. He's outgrowing the band. I mean, the Commodorees
<v Speaker 1>are great, but then there's next level. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>So the people at Motown go to him. They're like, hey, man,
<v Speaker 2>you have said before that you are content to retire
<v Speaker 2>as a Commodore, but we want you to try a
<v Speaker 2>solo album.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So that album is called Lionel Richie. As you
<v Speaker 1>do with your first album a lot of times, right,
<v Speaker 1>get your name out there.
<v Speaker 2>That first solo album sold four million copies and you
<v Speaker 2>mentioned it. My love that song hits number five, you
<v Speaker 2>are that hits number four and truly goes to.
<v Speaker 1>Number one always. That makes my life.
<v Speaker 2>He talks about how he was a little bit scared
<v Speaker 2>to go solo because groups had success. Right, solo artists,
<v Speaker 2>it's iffy, you know, it's a real gamble.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Well, right out of the gate, he's got three
<v Speaker 1>top five hits. So he gets together with a guy
<v Speaker 1>that he's worked with before. This is the producer of
<v Speaker 1>the album, a guy named James Anthony Carmichael. He produced Temptations,
<v Speaker 1>he produced Jackson five, and of course he produced the Commodorees.
<v Speaker 1>So Lionel Richie familiar with him one of his most
<v Speaker 1>successful records. Yeah, is an arrangement and a production of
<v Speaker 1>the nineteen sixty seven album Silver Throat Bill Cosby Sings What,
<v Speaker 1>which included Cosby's number four US pop hit Lil Old Man?
<v Speaker 2>Is It?
<v Speaker 1>Because I cannot believe that has happened. I've said, right, job,
<v Speaker 1>take my ram you like, what are you talking about?
<v Speaker 1>I knew that you would love that little random, out
<v Speaker 1>of the blue nugget. So that's that is producer James
<v Speaker 1>Anthony Carmichael. You know. In addition to producing the Jackson five,
<v Speaker 1>he also produced Bill Cosby's singing album.
<v Speaker 2>That is Hilarious.
<v Speaker 1>Hey.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, a quick story for you. When Lima,
<v Speaker 2>Richie and the Commodorees were opening, they got a gig opening.
<v Speaker 1>For the Jackson five.
<v Speaker 2>Right, So think about Commodores Jackson five, and then we
<v Speaker 2>move into the eighties. We've got Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson.
<v Speaker 1>Right.
<v Speaker 2>So this is when he decided to really take music seriously.
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh.
<v Speaker 2>So up to that point, it has just been fun, right, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>So he's hanging out with the Jackson five and they're
<v Speaker 2>having a great time. Well, he happens to catch a
<v Speaker 2>check given to the Jackson five one hundred and eighty
<v Speaker 2>thousand dollars check, just a personal check, like here you go, boom,
<v Speaker 2>he says. Soon as he saw that check, he's like, hmm,
<v Speaker 2>maybe ought to take this music thing a little more
<v Speaker 2>serious than I am.
<v Speaker 1>Wow.
<v Speaker 2>So it's interesting to me that Michael and Lionel have
<v Speaker 2>been in the same circle for a while.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, if you listen to if you listen to this album,
<v Speaker 1>if you listen and can't slow down, the similarities to
<v Speaker 1>some of the tracks on Thriller is unmistakable. Absolutely, both
<v Speaker 1>of them are coming out in eighty three, and of
<v Speaker 1>course they know each other and work together all the time.
<v Speaker 1>They work with Quincy Jones together all of the time,
<v Speaker 1>so it makes sense that you have this overlap. Not
<v Speaker 1>to mention that you've got the guys from Toto playing instruments.
<v Speaker 1>Lucather and Jeff Picoro are both playing on some of
<v Speaker 1>these songs on this album, just like they did with Thriller,
<v Speaker 1>So makes sense that there would be a similar sound
<v Speaker 1>to these. But he's still nailing it. It's still his own.
<v Speaker 1>It's still unmistakably Lionel Richie. Okay, guys, so we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>go with these songs track by track, but just let
<v Speaker 1>you know there are some pretty crazy stories that go
<v Speaker 1>along with these songs. One of them will involve the
<v Speaker 1>moment that Lionel Richie's first wife met his second wife. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>the only problem was he was still married to his
<v Speaker 1>first wife at the time. Yeah, that is one that
<v Speaker 1>will come up in just a second. But stay tuned
<v Speaker 1>for that one, boy.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, okay, I can't wait to hear that story.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's jump in track by track. First song
<v Speaker 1>of the album, Can't Slow Down, So both Thriller and
<v Speaker 1>Can't Slow Down We're Big and eighty three. Thriller came
<v Speaker 1>out in November of eighty two, Cancelor Down comes Down
<v Speaker 1>in October of nineteen eighty three, but they definitely have
<v Speaker 1>You can hear those similar sounds. Okay, So right out
<v Speaker 1>of the gate, I'm getting a lot of flavors of Thriller.
<v Speaker 1>The song Thriller, like You've got that dent and You've
<v Speaker 1>it's got the same bass sound to it. It's got
<v Speaker 1>the same kind of ambient celestial sound that goes on
<v Speaker 1>at the beginning of the song. It's an entirely different song,
<v Speaker 1>but it's got those those notes of flavor, if you will.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Well, it's interesting that you say that, because obviously
<v Speaker 2>this is the song where he gets the album title from.
<v Speaker 2>Much like Thriller. For me, though, this is a miss
<v Speaker 2>right right out of the gate. This is an incorrect
<v Speaker 2>first track.
<v Speaker 1>Right you You are wanting this song to be big
<v Speaker 1>and great. It's I don't dislike this song. It's just
<v Speaker 1>not a tent pole as far as the eyeing goes, right.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, we talked about the fact that this, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>the bad average on this particular album is phenomenal, and
<v Speaker 1>maybe this is a swing and a miss for being
<v Speaker 1>the first song. It's not a bad song. It belongs
<v Speaker 1>on the album. It's not a throwaway, it's not a skipper,
<v Speaker 1>but it's it just doesn't quite compare to the rest
<v Speaker 1>of the songs on the album.
<v Speaker 2>For me, sure, this is maybe a base hit between
<v Speaker 2>the shortstop and the third baseman.
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's an order of war. You know, it's
<v Speaker 1>an order of war before you eat the before you
<v Speaker 1>eat the main course.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, so let me tell you this. I'm gonna try
<v Speaker 2>not to say.
<v Speaker 1>No, it's order by the way, I'm just being funny.
<v Speaker 2>That's funny I got you. I'm gonna try not to
<v Speaker 2>say this on every track on this album. This song
<v Speaker 2>belongs on Miami Vice.
<v Speaker 1>Well, ironically, you're gonna be right on one of them.
<v Speaker 2>I am going to be right on one of the
<v Speaker 2>We'll talk about when we get there.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all right.
<v Speaker 2>So Crockett goes to a club and he's working his
<v Speaker 2>way past the dance floor to go talk to the
<v Speaker 2>Colubian drug dealer. This is the song playing in the
<v Speaker 2>background in that scene.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think you should stop your story, man, I
<v Speaker 1>think let's tell the whole episode. How what else happened? Hey?
<v Speaker 2>I could talk by any by his all day long.
<v Speaker 1>All right? So, not the greatest, but not a bad
<v Speaker 1>song for the album. Okay, starter, but not our main
<v Speaker 1>course meal.
<v Speaker 2>Right, absolutely, let me tell you a story about maybe
<v Speaker 2>the greatest twenty four hours in the nineteen eighties. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>So January twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five. This is after
<v Speaker 2>the success of this album, Can't Slow Down. Lionel Ritchie
<v Speaker 2>is hosting the American Music Awards during the course of
<v Speaker 2>this so he has to be there early. He shows
<v Speaker 2>up for rehearsal as the host. He's got to be
<v Speaker 2>there all day long. When they hit the awards ceremony
<v Speaker 2>that night, he wins six statues during the course of
<v Speaker 2>the evening that he's hosting.
<v Speaker 1>Wow right, how awkward?
<v Speaker 2>I know, right, Hey, it's me again. Yeah, And in fact,
<v Speaker 2>he comes out he's real famous quote. He's like comes
<v Speaker 2>up and he's like outrageous, all over the top.
<v Speaker 1>That's crazy.
<v Speaker 2>He wins favorite pop rock artist, wins favorite pop rock
<v Speaker 2>video for a video we'll be talking about here in
<v Speaker 2>a little bit, Okay, wins favorite pop rock video artist
<v Speaker 2>about that same video. He wins Favorite R and B Artist.
<v Speaker 2>He wins favorite R and B Male video artist, and
<v Speaker 2>favorite R and B video Okay, six wins for the
<v Speaker 2>show he's hosting. Once the show is over, he then
<v Speaker 2>meets most of the musical guests that are attending to
<v Speaker 2>record the song We Are the World that he co
<v Speaker 2>wrote with Michael Jackson. Yeah, is that a great twenty
<v Speaker 2>four hours?
<v Speaker 1>Or what the heck of a twenty four hours? Seems
<v Speaker 1>like maybe you'd do one more album and retire for
<v Speaker 1>ten years. Okay, So there we go. Can't slow down?
<v Speaker 1>Are we ready to move on to song number two?
<v Speaker 2>Let's move on to song number two.
<v Speaker 1>I'm so excited because if this was the order of
<v Speaker 1>this is our big hunkah awesome, smoking jerk statement. Oh okay,
<v Speaker 1>if you don't hear these beginning drum beats and musical
<v Speaker 1>instruments and him saying daddie and dada, and you don't
<v Speaker 1>feel happy and relaxed, you got some things in your
<v Speaker 1>life you need to deal with. Bro. This is a
<v Speaker 1>song that just I mean, it's like the beginning of
<v Speaker 1>Africa by Toto. It is so like puts you in
<v Speaker 1>that zen state of there's not a care in the
<v Speaker 1>world that I have that is as important as I'm
<v Speaker 1>making it right now. This is happiness down in the Caribbean. Baby.
<v Speaker 2>This is a ten pole song of the eighties for me.
<v Speaker 1>This is the best song on the album. In my opinion,
<v Speaker 1>You've got one of the greatest albums of the eighties.
<v Speaker 1>This is number one, will always be my favorite song
<v Speaker 1>of the album and Lionel Richie song to the top
<v Speaker 1>of the list.
<v Speaker 2>I'm with you one hundred percent number one song the album.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely yeah. This song makes you feel like you're on vacation.
<v Speaker 2>And it's funny because he wrote this song about going
<v Speaker 2>on vacation, right He said to his producers. They were
<v Speaker 2>kind of nervous about him releasing a Caribbean type of song,
<v Speaker 2>and he's like, guys, listen, I've been around the world.
<v Speaker 2>He goes, it doesn't matter who you are when you
<v Speaker 2>go to the Caribbean. You could be an opera singer,
<v Speaker 2>you could be a rap artist, you could be a
<v Speaker 2>rock guy. Everybody dances to the calypso there, and that's
<v Speaker 2>what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to encapsulate a
<v Speaker 2>vacation in a four minute song.
<v Speaker 1>Now, you told me a story about how he had
<v Speaker 1>this idea that hey, this is going to have this
<v Speaker 1>Caribbean flavor to it, and he had kind of the
<v Speaker 1>words and the verses, but he didn't have the hook.
<v Speaker 2>He didn't have the hook.
<v Speaker 1>Tell me.
<v Speaker 2>So. He had everything like raise the roof, have some fun,
<v Speaker 2>We're going to party, Caramo Fiesta forever, come on and
<v Speaker 2>sing a long.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, what do you say next?
<v Speaker 2>Stun silence. He's got nothing, He has no chorus, he
<v Speaker 2>has no hook. He went to a friend's house, one
<v Speaker 2>of his doctor friends who's Jamaican, and after dinner he's
<v Speaker 2>on his you know, like saying their goodbyes. He's walking
<v Speaker 2>out to the car and he's like, I got to
<v Speaker 2>go the studio, man, I got to go finish that
<v Speaker 2>song that I can't finish. I got to find the chorus.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm going to be up all night long, man
<v Speaker 2>all night long, man all night long. And that is
<v Speaker 2>how he came up with the hook for the song.
<v Speaker 1>It's fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>How about the loves?
<v Speaker 1>I can't believe he had the audacity to use a
<v Speaker 1>Jamaican accent to his Jamaican doctor, especially such a bad one.
<v Speaker 2>Exactly right, how's my Jamaican accent?
<v Speaker 1>That's what I was talking about.
<v Speaker 2>This song is released August of nineteen eighty three. This
<v Speaker 2>is the lead single. It hits number one in November
<v Speaker 2>of eighty three. It also hit number one on the
<v Speaker 2>Pop charts, the R and B charts, and the Adult
<v Speaker 2>Contemporary charts.
<v Speaker 1>This is blowing them all out of the water. So
<v Speaker 1>this one has a video, of course, right yes, And
<v Speaker 1>it is produced by one of the monkeys. I know
<v Speaker 1>what so Mike Nesmith, the guy one of the one
<v Speaker 1>of the monkeys. I don't know how to say it.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, where the monkey is?
<v Speaker 1>People say we monkey around? Well, he quit monkeying around
<v Speaker 1>and he decided to produce some videos, and he produced
<v Speaker 1>the video for All Night Long. The song was also used.
<v Speaker 1>You've mentioned this several times nineteen eighty four in the
<v Speaker 1>Olympics at the closing ceremonies. Guys, we've done it, we've finished.
<v Speaker 1>It is time to go party all night along.
<v Speaker 2>I love it, I love it. You know who is
<v Speaker 2>dancing in that ceremony closing the Olympics with Liona Richie
<v Speaker 2>playing All Night Long?
<v Speaker 1>Number one?
<v Speaker 2>You have Diane Alexander Okay, who's the woman who gets
<v Speaker 2>beat up by Leona Richie's first wife. Here in a
<v Speaker 2>second Okay Okay who later becomes his second wife. Right,
<v Speaker 2>And also Cuba Gooding Junior was a dancer. What during
<v Speaker 2>that ceremony?
<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, how about that? That is crazy?
<v Speaker 2>So this is interesting, right, there's all those sort of
<v Speaker 2>African Wars words in the middle of it, right, Jimbo
<v Speaker 2>Jumbo right told him to be right, all that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>You say that perfectly. It was like I was right
<v Speaker 1>there saying it was born.
<v Speaker 2>And raised in Africa. He called the UN to try
<v Speaker 2>to get somebody to help him with this African language,
<v Speaker 2>and the UN. I don't know who you call like
<v Speaker 2>dial up the un Hey can I speak with the
<v Speaker 2>African person in charge? And they said, well, there's a
<v Speaker 2>billion different African languages.
<v Speaker 1>What are you talking about?
<v Speaker 2>And one word in this language may mean something totally
<v Speaker 2>different in this so it's all made up crap.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, he totally made up some gibberish. Mama say mama,
<v Speaker 1>saw ma ma musa, jimbo, jambo, tomali, tomola di da whatever,
<v Speaker 1>it is nothing. It means nothing at all.
<v Speaker 2>There's actually a few nuggets in here. So kamo means
<v Speaker 2>party in Swahili, okay, and jambo means hello in Swahili.
<v Speaker 1>I see, I was close. I was close.
<v Speaker 2>Hey you got hello? You got party? What what else
<v Speaker 2>do you need?
<v Speaker 1>That's what the song is all about. Hello Party.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, this song appears in the pilot episode
<v Speaker 2>of Miami Vice and Lionel Richie was supposed to be
<v Speaker 2>in that episode. He was caught busy doing other things.
<v Speaker 2>He was off on tour or whatever, and so they
<v Speaker 2>got in somebody else to sing the song. I watched
<v Speaker 2>part of this episode. The guy they got was horrible.
<v Speaker 2>It was embarrassing.
<v Speaker 1>We should listen to that.
<v Speaker 2>Well, then Brad dis Cone.
<v Speaker 1>Rais has some fun.
<v Speaker 3>Done.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that's a stinker. Good motivation to never let somebody
<v Speaker 1>else perform your song.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Okay, I've got a story that I could not
<v Speaker 2>believe until I heard it from the words of the
<v Speaker 2>army commander in charge.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So during the invasion of Iraq in two
<v Speaker 1>thousand and two, Okay, do you know this story?
<v Speaker 2>No?
<v Speaker 1>On the edge of my seat. Okay.
<v Speaker 2>So when the US rolls into town, the Iraqis want
<v Speaker 2>to let the US.
<v Speaker 1>Know that hey, we're friendly, You're welcome here, help us out.
<v Speaker 1>Come on in, kid, you not.
<v Speaker 2>They start blaring all night long as a welcoming song
<v Speaker 2>to the US. Yeah, okay, And in return, the US
<v Speaker 2>from their home vs and stuff start blaring dancing on
<v Speaker 2>a ceiling.
<v Speaker 1>That's great, that's fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>Wellyama, Richie is all about helping us and Iraqis make friends.
<v Speaker 1>Well, here's the thing. I did not know that Iraqi's
<v Speaker 1>in the Middle East. There. He is huge in the
<v Speaker 1>Middle East. Like people, if you meet people from the
<v Speaker 1>Middle East and they're like, oh, hey, do you know
<v Speaker 1>Lionel Richie, they'll go nuts. They'll be like, he is
<v Speaker 1>the best singer of all time. It is. He is
<v Speaker 1>huge in that part of the country. I can't tell
<v Speaker 1>you why, but that was a tidbit that are in
<v Speaker 1>across How about that? That's crazy.
<v Speaker 2>You know who sings back up on this song and
<v Speaker 2>most of the songs on this album is it Richard Marks.
<v Speaker 2>It is Richard Barks.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm going to say this, I'll throw this out there.
<v Speaker 1>Calvin Harris Senior was an engineer on this album. He
<v Speaker 1>also sang backing vocals. He is the father of Calvin
<v Speaker 1>Harris Junior. Okay, okay. Calvin Harris Junior was ranked the
<v Speaker 1>number five smooth jazz artist by Billboard Magazine. He has
<v Speaker 1>toured with Prince Lenny Kravitz, Boys to Men, Earth Wind,
<v Speaker 1>and Fire. For Rell Williams, I mean he Whitney Houston.
<v Speaker 1>He is huge. His dad was the engineer on this
<v Speaker 1>album and eight also backup singer for a couple songs.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, that's fantastic. Yeah, Okay, We've got to talk about
<v Speaker 2>the video real quick.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>This is a time capsule plucked right out of nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty four yep. And it's breakdancing and partying eighty style.
<v Speaker 2>It is so fun, I'd love it.
<v Speaker 1>Nineteen eighty four is when I was full in parachute pants,
<v Speaker 1>Bandana's Michael Jackson jacket and glove break dancing fiend. And
<v Speaker 1>I love watching the little little kid doing his breakdancing
<v Speaker 1>moves in this video. Okay, I'm so glad I looked
<v Speaker 1>him up. Okay, the breakdancer in this I mean one
<v Speaker 1>of I'm not sure he was a little kid, but
<v Speaker 1>one of the breakdancers in this video is Michael Chambers,
<v Speaker 1>who you I hope no better as Turbo from Breaking
<v Speaker 1>and Break into Electrical how about that? Right? Oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 1>he moves on. He moves on from this video into
<v Speaker 1>doing the ultimate breakdancing movie of all time.
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god, it's sequel Latric Boogaloo. Love it, man.
<v Speaker 2>I love the rabbit holes that you go down sometimes
<v Speaker 2>turn out with straight gold.
<v Speaker 1>I love it.
<v Speaker 2>Just a fun video and a super fun song of
<v Speaker 2>the nineteen eighties, right tent pole song on the album
<v Speaker 2>Okay Are We Ready for? Song number three on the
<v Speaker 2>album Let's Do It. Song number three is a song
<v Speaker 2>called Penny Lover. Don't you be Cram? Can't you see
<v Speaker 2>girls beating for you?
<v Speaker 1>Now? You talk about panty droppers? Oh my gosh, so
<v Speaker 1>not ironically but appropriately wine. Richie wrote this song with
<v Speaker 1>his wife at the time. His wife's name was Brenda
<v Speaker 1>Harvey Ritchie. That's right. This high school sweethearts. High school sweethearts,
<v Speaker 1>that's right. Yeah, tell me more.
<v Speaker 2>Well, here's the deal. She was a high school sweetheart
<v Speaker 2>of his and like people in the business, thought that
<v Speaker 2>couple will last forever, right right, it was legit love.
<v Speaker 2>She loved him before he became a star. We'll get
<v Speaker 2>to the rest of the story here in a second,
<v Speaker 2>But that love story didn't last.
<v Speaker 1>Forever, right. So they had been married for quite a while,
<v Speaker 1>like eighteen years when this about the time this album
<v Speaker 1>came out. Okay, sorry, well I mean that he's still
<v Speaker 1>like fifteen years about the time this album had come out,
<v Speaker 1>right right, And she was a songwriter but hadn't done
<v Speaker 1>a whole lot, but she did help him write this song.
<v Speaker 1>This song is amazing, I mean, it is the what
<v Speaker 1>it's the last single that came off of the album.
<v Speaker 1>It was released September of nineteen eighty four, and it
<v Speaker 1>was top ten hit, gotten to number eight in December
<v Speaker 1>of that year, got hit eight on the R and
<v Speaker 1>B chart, also on the Adult Contemporary chart, spent four
<v Speaker 1>weeks at number one. Incredible beautiful song.
<v Speaker 2>So another top ten hit, number eight on the R
<v Speaker 2>and B, number eight on the Hot one hundred and
<v Speaker 2>number one Adult Contemporary. As we said, a panty dropper
<v Speaker 2>for women in nineteen eighty three, okay, it was used
<v Speaker 2>in the movie The Sure Thing.
<v Speaker 1>Have you seen that movie?
<v Speaker 2>No? I have not. John Cusack, Rob Reiners like first movie.
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh Daftning Zuniga. I need to check it out.
<v Speaker 2>It's so good man, we got to cover that.
<v Speaker 1>Well. We've talked about comparing that one to something else
<v Speaker 1>and maybe say anything. I think maybe's what we talk about.
<v Speaker 1>But be fun. That'd be great. Now. That is one
<v Speaker 1>more thing I like. Don't you ever take Sweet Love
<v Speaker 1>a wag?
<v Speaker 2>Jeffs I've got a story for you on this one, okay, okay.
<v Speaker 2>Bob Giraldi is the guy who does the video. Yes, okay,
<v Speaker 2>and he was a very well known video director at
<v Speaker 2>the time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I think he did three of the videos on
<v Speaker 1>this album.
<v Speaker 3>He goes on.
<v Speaker 1>He directs Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>He also directs the music video Say Say Say by
<v Speaker 2>Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, which we've talked about before,
<v Speaker 2>because Michael Jackson wins that arm wrestling contest when they
<v Speaker 2>must out right right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>But for you eighties levers out there, he directed the
<v Speaker 2>John Cryer movie Hiding Out in nineteen eighty seven.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so the video for this song is interesting. It
<v Speaker 1>is so incredibly eighties. You've got some girls wishing somebody
<v Speaker 1>could buy.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, she's it looks like a futuristic brothel of some sort,
<v Speaker 2>uh huh. And she's telling the general see you later, general. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>he's wearing a navy uniform. Now.
<v Speaker 1>The girls all have right kneon hair, just like you
<v Speaker 1>did back in the eighties. I guess with the strange cuts.
<v Speaker 2>They look very twenty twenty three.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Lyonel Richie, however, is wearing a shoulder padded gemstone
<v Speaker 1>emblazoned jacket. Yes, and then later is getting his shirt
<v Speaker 1>taken off by one of these women. It's a testament
<v Speaker 1>to the gold of the eighties that at the.
<v Speaker 2>Very beginning of the video there's like a love letter
<v Speaker 2>that the girls read and it's like, tell the one
<v Speaker 2>that is so special that I still love him, And
<v Speaker 2>they all turn and look at Lena Richie and then
<v Speaker 2>he begins to sing all.
<v Speaker 1>My dearest friends. The time has been too long since
<v Speaker 1>I've been able to write to you. My life now
<v Speaker 1>seemschizeds been this week and I.
<v Speaker 3>Am so.
<v Speaker 1>Please tell the one We're so special that my sweetlove
<v Speaker 1>never went away.
<v Speaker 2>The music videos of the day are so fun to
<v Speaker 2>go back and look at it.
<v Speaker 1>I just I want this to be the episode that
<v Speaker 1>we get the most Jason Colvin accents that we can
<v Speaker 1>have can we give me? Do that? I think that
<v Speaker 1>so we got French, we got Caribbean. I can't wait
<v Speaker 1>for what's next?
<v Speaker 2>Is so special?
<v Speaker 1>Oh my gosh. Okay, okay, So let's move on to
<v Speaker 1>song number song number four. This song is called stuck
<v Speaker 1>On You Stuck On got this feeling down deep in
<v Speaker 1>the soul.
<v Speaker 3>Then that just came.
<v Speaker 2>Get them all way.
<v Speaker 1>I feel like two step in. I know right, this
<v Speaker 1>is like a country song. Oh my gosh, I looked
<v Speaker 1>there's no video for this song. When I started listening
<v Speaker 1>the album again, I'm listening to this, I'm like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I love the song. I'm like, man, I didn't realize
<v Speaker 1>how country and this could be On the country charts.
<v Speaker 2>It made it to the country charts. It reached number
<v Speaker 2>twenty four on the Hot one hundred Country Songs.
<v Speaker 1>So if you look, there's no official music video to
<v Speaker 1>this song. But that's okay because you have Lionel Ritchie's
<v Speaker 1>picture on the cover of the single, wearing a cowboy
<v Speaker 1>hat and a big old belt buckle. Baby, he looks great.
<v Speaker 2>Man. It's Lionel the Cowboy Ritchie.
<v Speaker 1>That's all the gold you need.
<v Speaker 3>Man.
<v Speaker 1>This song is probably my number two on the album.
<v Speaker 1>I love this. I love the song. It is straight
<v Speaker 1>down the line on Lady and the other Kenny Rogers
<v Speaker 1>songs that they've worked together on. Yeah, it is. It's beautiful.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't realize how close in genre and in style
<v Speaker 2>Lionel Richie is to Kenny Rogers.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you know. Yeah, well, country at that time was
<v Speaker 1>becoming much more pop and much more soulful. Yeah, and
<v Speaker 1>here we go with Lionel Ritchie. I mean he's raised
<v Speaker 1>in Alabama, Baby, I know. Yeah, I mean that's how
<v Speaker 1>it is, there, you go. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I noticed in the lyrics there are country phrases or
<v Speaker 2>terms that I would consider country. Yeah, like Darlin calls
<v Speaker 2>her Darlin, you know, and then he uses the term
<v Speaker 2>mighty glad you state.
<v Speaker 1>Mighty glad you stay. Yeah, taking the Midnight Train. Man,
<v Speaker 1>I love it, I love it yep.
<v Speaker 2>This song was released May one, nineteen eighty four, reached
<v Speaker 2>number three in August of eighty four.
<v Speaker 1>Great song.
<v Speaker 2>Great another top ten hits.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>If you listen to the lyrics in this song, it's
<v Speaker 2>basically about moving a friend who's a girl into the
<v Speaker 2>girlfriend lane.
<v Speaker 1>Right. It's it's upgrading, right, getting her out of the
<v Speaker 1>friend zone, getting out of the friend zone.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And it reminds me lyrically. It's sort of similar
<v Speaker 2>to the Survivor song called the Search is over All right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so it was right before my eyes. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>got that. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Another great one though.
<v Speaker 1>Got a feeling down deep in my soul that I
<v Speaker 1>just can't lose.
<v Speaker 2>And when he says the guess I'm on my way. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>Oh that's just solid gold right there. Man, I love it.
<v Speaker 1>Great song. I love it. Yeah. All right. D So
<v Speaker 1>that conclude side one of Can't Slow Down.
<v Speaker 2>Hit stop on your tape player, kick it out, flip
<v Speaker 2>it over for side two. We begin side to with
<v Speaker 2>the song love Will Find a Way.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So the instrumentation on this reminds you at all
<v Speaker 1>of the song Thriller.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, I was gonna say baby be Mine, but tell
<v Speaker 2>me more.
<v Speaker 1>No, it could very well be baby be Mine as well. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>so the co writer on this song is a guy
<v Speaker 1>named Greg pillin Gaines. Okay, he's from Detroit. He started
<v Speaker 1>playing him this is, this is I'm not kidding, started
<v Speaker 1>playing piano by ear and was playing at the piano
<v Speaker 1>bar Age two what his mom bought him a piano.
<v Speaker 1>He ultimately later on gets discovered by Stevie Wonder and
<v Speaker 1>then in nineteen seventy eight begins a three decade long
<v Speaker 1>involvement with mister King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. He
<v Speaker 1>is the guy who laid down many of the tracks
<v Speaker 1>on the Thriller album, including this track that goes underneath
<v Speaker 1>the Vincent Price rap. Oh that's great man. Yeah, so
<v Speaker 1>he is the co writer of this song.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, well, and that makes sense right. This song to
<v Speaker 2>me is that sort of light, funky synth, very very
<v Speaker 2>eighties right. In fact, I would even say early eighties.
<v Speaker 2>I could see Crockett working his way to the pretty
<v Speaker 2>girl on the dance floor after talking to the Columbian
<v Speaker 2>drug dealer to this song.
<v Speaker 1>Now, he did some solo work Yeah, and apparently one
<v Speaker 1>of his minor hits was a cover of the Yellow
<v Speaker 1>Magic Orchestra's song Behind the Mask. How's that for tying
<v Speaker 1>in with an old Mariah Carey reference?
<v Speaker 2>Look at that?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, guys, Mariah Carey, we've covered on our Patreon episodes.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to hear those super special episodes, I
<v Speaker 1>promise they are all better than Mariah Carey, you can
<v Speaker 1>go over to our Patreon page, which is patreon dot
<v Speaker 1>com backslash Shirly podcast. That's s U R E l y.
<v Speaker 2>What a great tie in.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there you go. You can hear all the stories
<v Speaker 1>about the Yellow Magic Orchestra and Mariah Carey stealing their music.
<v Speaker 1>So that's all I've really got on this song because
<v Speaker 1>it's not one of my favorites.
<v Speaker 2>This one's one of the weaker songs on the album.
<v Speaker 1>It is kind of a panty drapper. Yeah, I mean
<v Speaker 1>it's this is a style of music that is very
<v Speaker 1>popular with a certain group of folks love this type
<v Speaker 1>of music.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just not that guy.
<v Speaker 1>This is not my style. But that doesn't make this
<v Speaker 1>a bad song. It's just not me right, Moving on
<v Speaker 1>to the next song. That song is called The Only
<v Speaker 1>One let me tell you know all that song Okay.
<v Speaker 1>This song was co written with Lionel Ritchie by a
<v Speaker 1>guy named David Foster. He has won sixteen Grammy Awards,
<v Speaker 1>has been nominated forty seven times. Wow, And he also
<v Speaker 1>was an executive who chaired the Verve Records from twenty
<v Speaker 1>twelve to twenty sixteen. I mean, this guy is huge
<v Speaker 1>and kind of under the radar.
<v Speaker 2>Where I know him from is?
<v Speaker 1>I know?
<v Speaker 2>He wrote the love song for the movie San Animl's Fire,
<v Speaker 2>a little.
<v Speaker 1>Bit of nineteen eighty five gold right there, ladies there? Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>So again though, another one that's just kind of an
<v Speaker 1>okay song.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the thing with this song, this is just an
<v Speaker 2>okay song. Yeah, But you add Lionel Richie's vocals to this. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>they're so smooth and effortless. They're easy like Sunday Morning,
<v Speaker 2>if you will, perfect, But his vocals elevate the song
<v Speaker 2>for sure.
<v Speaker 1>It's not a skipper, No, it's not a skipper. This
<v Speaker 1>one you listen through and then you know you're excited
<v Speaker 1>for running with the knight, right.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely, Let's get to the real good one here, all right.
<v Speaker 1>Second to the last song on the album, number seven
<v Speaker 1>on the album Running with the Night, dude, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>just set it up. I'm just in heaven right now,
<v Speaker 1>because this is crashing eighties synthesizers, a very cool bassline,
<v Speaker 1>the muted picking of the strings of a guitar. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I'm in, I'm in all over the place on this one.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, this is Lionel Ritchie's answer to Michael Jackson's Beat It.
<v Speaker 2>It's motown meets pop rock. Yeah, it's Lionel Richie plus
<v Speaker 2>Toto equals hit.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So we've talked about this story before, but we
<v Speaker 1>got to tell it again, right, Okay. So Steve Lukather,
<v Speaker 1>the lead guitarist for Toto, one of the most underrated
<v Speaker 1>guitarists of all times. He is phenomenal, right, phenomenal guitarist.
<v Speaker 1>And he was a session musician, yes, and so they said, hey,
<v Speaker 1>this needs to have a very rock feel to it.
<v Speaker 1>Let's get Steve to come in and lay down a
<v Speaker 1>solo on it. So they had done the whole song.
<v Speaker 1>They wanted the solo not to be in the middle,
<v Speaker 1>but at the end of the song, right, and so
<v Speaker 1>Steve comes in, and he's an experienced guy, so he's like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>just let me listen to it and see what I
<v Speaker 1>can do. And so they're like, all right, and they
<v Speaker 1>play the backing track for him that they've already covered,
<v Speaker 1>right right, And so Steve Lucather does what you do
<v Speaker 1>is a guitarist and you're trying to find the solo
<v Speaker 1>is he starts noodling and he's picking it out and
<v Speaker 1>he's finding little licks that he likes and he's like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>grooving and I'm like, oh, I like that, like that
<v Speaker 1>all right, gets done with it and he's like, okay, guys,
<v Speaker 1>I'm ready to do the take, and the producer says
<v Speaker 1>that was the take.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>So the solo that you hear at the end of
<v Speaker 1>this song, it was the first attempt at the soul.
<v Speaker 1>Like he's playing around, he's fiddling around, and he creates
<v Speaker 1>one of the most memorable solos of all time.
<v Speaker 2>He doesn't even know he's being recorded. He's just screwing
<v Speaker 2>around with the guitar looking for the solo. Okay, I
<v Speaker 2>think I can come up with something. No, that's perfect.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you very much. Thanks for puting get your check
<v Speaker 1>from the receptions on the way out. It's in your
<v Speaker 1>money today. Steve incredible, right, So now, This video is
<v Speaker 1>directed by Bob Jerryaldi, who we talked about before. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>this one is a wedding reception. Is where we start off,
<v Speaker 1>and you've got a young pretty bridesmaid who is sitting alone,
<v Speaker 1>very sad. And then he cuts to Lina Ritchie and
<v Speaker 1>he's hanging out with his goofy buddies and they're all
<v Speaker 1>being goofy, and then they're hooking up with girls and
<v Speaker 1>Lina Richie's not hooking up with girls, and then they
<v Speaker 1>end up crashing the wedding that this lonely bridesmaid has
<v Speaker 1>been sitting. And then oh love is in the air,
<v Speaker 1>and Lionel Ritchie hooks up with this young pretty bridesmaid.
<v Speaker 1>Do you know who is playing the young pretty bridesmaid?
<v Speaker 2>I didn't until you told me and blew my socks off.
<v Speaker 2>I'm putting my socks back on right at the moment.
<v Speaker 2>Tell me who the bridesmaid is. The bridesmaid is Sheila E.
<v Speaker 2>That's freaking Sheila E, the solo artist and drummer for.
<v Speaker 1>Prince Yes, dude. And what is crazy is there's another
<v Speaker 1>connection with her and mister Ritchie. Ok. And we were
<v Speaker 1>texting as we do you know when we find out
<v Speaker 1>these little bits of gold that we have, we have
<v Speaker 1>to text each other. So on Monday at eight thirty three,
<v Speaker 1>I texted you and I said, Nicole Ritchie is the
<v Speaker 1>biological niece of Sheila E. And your response was shut up.
<v Speaker 1>So Nicole Ritchie, who everybody knows at this point was adopted,
<v Speaker 1>was the adopted daughter of Lionel Ritchie, and she was
<v Speaker 1>the biological daughter of one of his musicians, right right,
<v Speaker 1>but starts staying with the richies when she is very young.
<v Speaker 1>But her given name is Nicole Camille Escoveto. And if
<v Speaker 1>you don't know, Sheila E. Is short for Sheila Escovito.
<v Speaker 2>How about that? That's incredible.
<v Speaker 1>What a great nugget that is, Auntie Sheila.
<v Speaker 2>It's a love bizarre. It's a love bizarre.
<v Speaker 1>I love it.
<v Speaker 2>This song reached number seven in nineteen eighty four, again
<v Speaker 2>another top ten hit. The video when I watched it,
<v Speaker 2>it looks like early Smooth Criminal, right, they're all wearing
<v Speaker 2>fedoras and like, you know, yeah, the chrome suits and
<v Speaker 2>all that stuff. It's fun awesome. Another Bob Girardi video.
<v Speaker 2>What you already said, you know who plays drums on
<v Speaker 2>this song?
<v Speaker 1>Not Sheilah Okay, now tell me Jeff Picaro.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, there you go. Of course, yeah that makes sense. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>this song opened the AMAS when we talked about the
<v Speaker 2>greatest twenty four hours in eighties music history. Yeah, this
<v Speaker 2>was the song that Lionel Richie kicked off the AMAS
<v Speaker 2>with Running with the Night, and then he bookens the
<v Speaker 2>night with the recording of We Are the World Sweet,
<v Speaker 2>which I've got a funny story for you.
<v Speaker 1>Okay.
<v Speaker 2>You know Prince was supposed to sing and we Are
<v Speaker 2>the World.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we talked about this in our Huey Lewis episode
<v Speaker 1>that Huey Lewis got the part in that song because
<v Speaker 1>Prince did not show up.
<v Speaker 2>Prince was a no show. So here's the funny story, right,
<v Speaker 2>go ahead. Yeah, so Lionel is orchestrating this whole deal.
<v Speaker 2>He co wrote the song with Michael. We really need
<v Speaker 2>to do a deep dive on we Are the World.
<v Speaker 2>But it's time, and you know, where's Prince? Right? Well,
<v Speaker 2>they get him on the phone, and Lionel gets him
<v Speaker 2>on the phone, is like hey Prince, hey, you know
<v Speaker 2>we're recording where are you get down here? And Prince
<v Speaker 2>is like, well, you know, I don't really like to
<v Speaker 2>record in a group. I like to record in a
<v Speaker 2>booth by myself. Can I have that? And Lionel's like no,
<v Speaker 2>I mean this is a we're doing the big video,
<v Speaker 2>we're doing it all together. You can't have that. He's like, well,
<v Speaker 2>I don't really do that, you know, I don't really
<v Speaker 2>want to do that. And so anyway, he's trying to
<v Speaker 2>convince Prince to come down and he says the wrong thing.
<v Speaker 1>He says, Prince, just.
<v Speaker 2>Come on down. We'll put you right next to Michael.
<v Speaker 2>And that was the death sentence. Like Prince was like
<v Speaker 2>dead silent. You could tell I said the wrong thing
<v Speaker 2>and that was absolutely not gonna happen.
<v Speaker 1>So are we ready to move on to the final
<v Speaker 1>song on the album?
<v Speaker 2>Let's move on to the final song on the album.
<v Speaker 1>What is the best name for the last song on
<v Speaker 1>the album?
<v Speaker 2>Goodbye?
<v Speaker 1>No, it's hello? Hello? Is it me you looking?
<v Speaker 3>I can see it in your right.
<v Speaker 1>I can see it in your smile. Okay, So this
<v Speaker 1>is the Hello before Adele. This is the original Hello.
<v Speaker 1>This is Lionel Richie's Hello, and it's one of my favorites.
<v Speaker 1>This is a video that I can remember from a
<v Speaker 1>kid watching this thing. Because you had Lionel who was
<v Speaker 1>fallen in love. Of course, of course another one by
<v Speaker 1>Bob Jerryaldi, one of the three that he did for
<v Speaker 1>the show. Lionel Ritchie is falling in love with this
<v Speaker 1>girl in the acting class, but she's blind and he
<v Speaker 1>think it's unrequited until at the very end he shows
<v Speaker 1>up and she's sculpted his face in what looks like bubblegum.
<v Speaker 1>It is the most frightening sculpture I've seen, so scarred
<v Speaker 1>me a bit.
<v Speaker 2>This is the weirdest video of all time. But at
<v Speaker 2>won at the AMA Awards, right, it won two awards
<v Speaker 2>for being the Best Video, and it is so dumb.
<v Speaker 2>It is painfully dumb. So here's the thing. So when
<v Speaker 2>he's at you know, getting Bob Giraldi to do these
<v Speaker 2>videos is a big get, right, right, And when he
<v Speaker 2>shows up at the set, the very first thing Lionel
<v Speaker 2>Richie does is he looks at the bust and he's like,
<v Speaker 2>that didn't look anything like me. And Bob's like, yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 2>you know whatever, Okay, So then they set up some
<v Speaker 2>more and you know, an hour later, Lionel Richie's like, hey,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if you've seen the bus, but it
<v Speaker 2>doesn't look anything like me. And then he's like yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>okay whatever he and so now it's time to shoot
<v Speaker 2>that scene. And Lionel's finally like, hey, hey, Bob, hold everything.
<v Speaker 2>That bus doesn't look anything like me. And Bob's like, well,
<v Speaker 2>here's the deal, Lionel. She's blind. Okay, so we're going
<v Speaker 2>with that.
<v Speaker 1>That's terrible, that's terrible. We can't oh my gosh. So
<v Speaker 1>the inception of the song is interesting. This is one
<v Speaker 1>of the ones that well, just a happy little story
<v Speaker 1>on happy little accident, on how this happens. The producer
<v Speaker 1>that we talked about before, mister Carmichael, Anthony Carmichael, is
<v Speaker 1>looking for Lionel.
<v Speaker 2>Walking around the studio looking for Lionel Richie. Lionel Richie's
<v Speaker 2>sitting at the piano. Linel keeps passing by him, Linel, Hey, Lionel,
<v Speaker 2>where are you? And Lionel, as an answer to that question,
<v Speaker 2>plays just a couple of little notes on the piano
<v Speaker 2>keyboard and says, hello, is it me you're looking for?
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh.
<v Speaker 2>At that moment, James Anthony Carmichael could have looked at
<v Speaker 2>him and said, yes, where have you been? I've been
<v Speaker 2>looking for you the whole time. Instead, he looks at
<v Speaker 2>him and said, finish that song, And Lionel Richie's like,
<v Speaker 2>what song that song that you just played for me.
<v Speaker 2>He's like, it's not a song, it's just words, right,
<v Speaker 2>And he's like, finish that song?
<v Speaker 1>Is it me?
<v Speaker 2>You? And I wonder what?
<v Speaker 1>I love it? I love these stories there's it seems
<v Speaker 1>to be a song like this on every album. And
<v Speaker 1>of course how perfect to put hello at the very
<v Speaker 1>end of the album.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this song reached number one in nineteen eighty four.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, it was the third single released on the
<v Speaker 2>album and is a ten poll song for lyone.
<v Speaker 1>Richie, Yeah, definitely.
<v Speaker 2>So interestingly, this was a holdover from his first solo album.
<v Speaker 2>This was actually demoed all the way back in nineteen
<v Speaker 2>eighty two. He had to be convinced. He thought people
<v Speaker 2>would kind of laugh him out of the room when
<v Speaker 2>he played this song.
<v Speaker 1>It's a little cheesy. Yeah, it turns out this.
<v Speaker 2>Is the biggest motown song of all time. Wow, Like
<v Speaker 2>when you think about Motown, when you think about Smokey
<v Speaker 2>Robinson and stuff like that, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>This is the biggest song of all times. That's amazing.
<v Speaker 1>That is amazing. Okay, guys, that is the end of
<v Speaker 1>this album. But we are not done yet. We promised
<v Speaker 1>you a story before we got started, and there's there.
<v Speaker 1>The story is coming, I promise you.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, let's have it.
<v Speaker 1>So so this album was released. It obviously did fantastically well.
<v Speaker 1>One's all kinds of awards best selling album of nineteen
<v Speaker 1>eighty five. And so what does he do nineteen eighty
<v Speaker 1>six He releases solo album number three, Dane on the Ceiling. Now,
<v Speaker 1>you probably have seen the video to Dancing on the Ceiling.
<v Speaker 1>And if you have seen the video to Dancing on
<v Speaker 1>the Ceiling, then you have seen Lionel Ritchie's second wife.
<v Speaker 1>There's a story that goes along with it, and I'll
<v Speaker 1>let Jason tell us that story.
<v Speaker 2>Okay. So, one of the dancers in the Dancing on
<v Speaker 2>the Ceiling video, his names is Diane Alexander.
<v Speaker 1>Sam girl who was dancing at the nineteen eighty four
<v Speaker 1>o Elemper.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, and when you look at her, oh man,
<v Speaker 2>she's majors. His wife, Brenda and him were going through
<v Speaker 2>rough times, so they were separated for a while. Supposedly,
<v Speaker 2>this is what he says.
<v Speaker 1>He said, we were on a break.
<v Speaker 2>And so they lived together and they were still married,
<v Speaker 2>but he would sneak out in the middle of the
<v Speaker 2>night and go see his mistress, Diane Alexander. Yeah, one
<v Speaker 2>of the people who lived next door to Lionel Ritchie said,
<v Speaker 2>he said, I would see him leave every night at
<v Speaker 2>two o'clock in the morning, sneaking out the back door.
<v Speaker 2>On June twenty ninth and nineteen eighty eight, Brenda Richie
<v Speaker 2>decides she's had enough and she follows him to her
<v Speaker 2>apartment and confronts them him at her apartment in the
<v Speaker 2>middle of the night. Okay, and so what happens is
<v Speaker 2>she remains very calm and she's very cool, and nothing
<v Speaker 2>happens that is not true. She loses her ever love
<v Speaker 2>and mind. Yeah, she breaks crap. She screams her head off,
<v Speaker 2>She's busting up furniture. She starts to beat up Lionel Richie.
<v Speaker 1>Lionel Richie is like, baby, baby, it wasn't me. It
<v Speaker 1>wasn't me.
<v Speaker 2>I was returning the library book her.
<v Speaker 1>Oh gosh.
<v Speaker 2>So the funny thing is is that she goes ape
<v Speaker 2>crap and starts wailing on both of them, like, kicks
<v Speaker 2>him in the balls. He said it was in the
<v Speaker 2>stomach region.
<v Speaker 1>In the ball.
<v Speaker 2>She kicked him in the two brick houses, right, and
<v Speaker 2>then she continues to pummel Diane. Alexander is like got
<v Speaker 2>her on the ground and is wailing on her. So
<v Speaker 2>Lionel Richie takes off, he leaves, He flees the scene.
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, so he goes to a payphone calls the cops.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, the neighbors call the cops because you can't
<v Speaker 2>live in an apartment complex and scream your head off
<v Speaker 2>and break furniture and go ballistic. So they come to
<v Speaker 2>arrest Brenda Ritchie.
<v Speaker 1>Get this.
<v Speaker 2>When the police show up, she doesn't go peacefully. She
<v Speaker 2>goes eight crap on them.
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh.
<v Speaker 2>They have to cuff her and hold her down like things,
<v Speaker 2>like five of.
<v Speaker 1>Them to hold her down. They literally had to stuff her.
<v Speaker 2>So they arrest her for corporal injury of the spouse,
<v Speaker 2>resisting arrest, trespassing, vandalism, battery, disturbing the peace. And while
<v Speaker 2>they've got her down on the ground, they're trying to
<v Speaker 2>cuff her hands, trying to cuff ankles.
<v Speaker 1>Stop resisting. This is a lot easier if you.
<v Speaker 2>Just laid back. They are trying to take care of her,
<v Speaker 2>and the whole time she's screaming at Diane, help me
<v Speaker 2>right the girl, she was just whooping, help me, Diane,
<v Speaker 2>don't let them do this to me, help me, help me?
<v Speaker 2>What come on? Oh my gosh, and guess what nobody
<v Speaker 2>press charges?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Well yeah, and by the way, they tried to patch
<v Speaker 2>it up. They were married for another three or four
<v Speaker 2>years after this.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah yeah, but ultimately get divorced. He goes and marries
<v Speaker 1>Diane and they're together for quite a while as well. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>And then she dumps him because he won't he cuts
<v Speaker 2>her off. He won't allow her to spend three hundred
<v Speaker 2>thousand dollars a month. That was what she was wanting.
<v Speaker 1>She's hanging out with Tony Katine exactly. Okay, guys, that
<v Speaker 1>does it for Lionel Richie. Can't slow down? Be sure
<v Speaker 1>and hit that follow button so that you will catch
<v Speaker 1>us next episode where we are going to talk about
<v Speaker 1>mister piano Man himself, Billy Joel and his nineteen eighty
<v Speaker 1>three album Innocent.
<v Speaker 2>Man, Miss Boy, I don't want to see you a
<v Speaker 2>little good thing slip Away. Wow, what a fantastic out
<v Speaker 2>that that matchup is gonna be huge, and I hopefully
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna have John Reid with us on that one
<v Speaker 2>and we'll talk about it track by track and figure
<v Speaker 2>out which one we'd like best.
<v Speaker 1>Come back next week, and guys, if you haven't checked
<v Speaker 1>out our YouTube page, we've got some cool videos on there.
<v Speaker 1>Jason just went to the locations for The Outsiders and
<v Speaker 1>Rumblefish and caught some cool video there, so definitely go
<v Speaker 1>check that out as well. We will see you guys
<v Speaker 1>next week.
<v Speaker 2>But this is a song where like Crockett goes to
<v Speaker 2>a tub, Crockett goes to a club and he wants.
<v Speaker 1>Wait a minute, I like it better when he goes
<v Speaker 1>to a tub. He doesn't go to tubs and he
<v Speaker 1>doesn't go to a club. He goes to a tub.