Lionel Ritchie hits #1 on the Billboard album chart - 26 years after his last #1

soundboy

soundboy

Super Member
In its 3rd week, Lionel Ritchie's country-flavored "Tuskegee" album has climbed to #1 in its 3rd week on Billboard's Hot 200 album chart. The album debuted 3 weeks ago at #2, behind Madonna's MDNA, which has since dropped to #18. Lionel Richie's album is also currently #1 on the Country album chart and has sold more than 432,000 copies in 3 weeks.

Not bad at all for an artist who's heydays were in the 70s and 80s.
 
I'm not sure why but this just makes me feel good inside. I'm not even a huge fan but he always seemed like a nice guy. My sister was in love with him growing up and I was subjected to more than my fair share. Maybe it sunk in.
 
I have always been a big fan of his. He like the former Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer Darius Rucker have turned to the so-called genre called COUNTRY MUSIC. Country music today is just yesterdays pop music. They think if you throw on a cowboy hat you are an instant country star. I digress. Go for it Lionel!
 
Not sure if this is still the case but C&W was for the longest time the biggest radio market. The pop that outsells pop music.
 
My late mother LOVED Lionel after she saw an interview w/him & his mama on TV once, long time ago...She thought they were VERY fine people, & she usually didn't have much good to say about "Pop" types.
 
I like Can't Slow Down and Dancing on the Ceiling, two good albums with great production. I grew up hearing the hits from them as a little kid on my parent's radio (and I think my mom had a record of Dancing). I even used to dance/break dance to Dancing on the Ceiling lol (ahhh, the 80's!).

Haven't explored beyond that...yet.
 
I watched the Lionel Ritchie and Friends concert on TV just a couple weeks ago. The large country music audience and country artists present seemed to have a genuine love, respect and admiration for Lionel, and accepted him with open arms. When the cameras panned the audience during the performances, a hell of a wide cross-section of those present seemed to know the words to his songs.
 
Permanent Waves said:
I like Can't Slow Down and Dancing on the Ceiling, two good albums with great production. I grew up hearing the hits from them as a little kid on my parent's radio (and I think my mom had a record of Dancing). I even used to dance/break dance to Dancing on the Ceiling lol (ahhh, the 80's!).

Haven't explored beyond that...yet.
Click to expand...

Agreed on both albums. I found a CD copy of Dancing on The Ceiling and the production values were outstanding. There's only two songs that are complete duds but stuff like Deep River Woman and Say You Say Me are really nice.
 
Saw Lionel and Mariah Carey last night. Sprint Center ( KC ) was packed ( 18,000 perhaps? ).
Audience was roaring, dancing and having tons of fun.

Lionel was amazing. Funny, smiley guy and a class act. He looks like he isn't retiring yet. He and his back up band really gave 100%.

His band was tallented, but Mariah Carey's band was much much better than Lionel's. WAY funky and very tight.
It was odd that Lionel had two white guys (guitar and sax/harmonica) AND that they stayed segregated on stage ( black drummer, bassist and keys on stage left ).
The band's outfits just looked way out of place. White guys dressed like a metal or punk band. The bassist looks like a gangster with knee length shorts and a cornrow mohawk. The sax player kinda struck me as looking like a skinhead. They weren't endearing like Mariah's band members. :confused:
Just really struck me as an odd choice for a legend like Lionel Richie.

As usual with seeing classic bands/performers....I am really sensitive to when they rush through songs and when the tempo is off...it bugs me to NO END.
Musician's curse I guess. Penny Lover was a little rushed and I could tell the drummer was trying to dial it back from the tempo that Lionel started off at.

I had a hard time with the slight "modernization" of his hit songs. I understand that live performances don't always stick close to the studio tracks (and probably can't due to limits on the number of insruments). But is it THAT hard to match studio tracks more closely? I haven't been to a lot of concerts in my life, so maybe that's just the way it is.
I would say they followed the studio recordings 90-95%, but the rhythm and progressions seemed to be off so badly a couple times that singing along was difficult. A tighter band with more soul is needed. My wife thought LR had been drinking before the show. It got better as the show went on though. (heck maybe it was just the sound guy's fault ?)

I was very pleased that he didn't do any "medleys".

Still had a BALL and had LR songs going through my head all day today. :banana: Very glad I had the chance to see him.
 
I recently got the digital HD Tracks downloads of Richie's three albums (LR, Can't Slow Down, Dancing On The Ceiling) and gave them a listen. The songs back then got really tired and old--I would have been happy not to hear the songs again. While playing them now, I realized again how good they were, and it was nice to hear them fresh again. True, some of the production sounds dated, but you can't fault the songwriting or musicianship here. What also scarred me a bit back then was the abysmal quality of Motown vinyl in general--I think they were using MCA's pressing plant(s), who were known for using reground vinyl, and I can't think of any label I had to return more records from than Motown/Tamla pressed in the 80s. The first LR album had a lot of quiet passages, and it was nasty having to listen to it with the Rice Krispies accompaniment.

( Not bad for a 5 year old thread... ;) )
 
I too saw Richie / Carey in Anahiem Ca. and truely a great show all the way around. It was the HITS tour and when Mariah Carey left the stage after her set i said to myself how in the hell does Lionel follow that. Mariah took no prisioners,her band was tight and her voice was magnificent.
Shouldn't have doubted Richie, he just kept pulling hit after hit out of his canon of work from his solo career and with The Commadores and let's face it he sang some of the most definitive love ballads in his era. Penny Lover,Hello,I'm Easy,Sail On, Lady and Once,Twice, three times a Lady. Lionel could rock to and it was a great F'in Show. Worth every penny for the memories the music gave me.
 
I love the story Lionel told about his daughter giving him a hard time (teenage daughters...sheesh) about not playing real "Black" music. Lionel dropped Brick House on her and she was so shocked, at first she didn't believe that funk monster was sappy ol' Dad.
 
"Too Hot ta Trot" (a non-album track) was also quite funky. As was their older tune "Slippery When Wet."

I like the cover of "Brick House" by Rob Zombie--Lionel makes a cameo on that track.
 
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