June 20th is a special day! Today is Lionel Richie’s 70th birthday.
Lionel Richie began his long standing successful music career as a singer and saxophonist of the Commodores in 1968. The Commodores went on to later support the super group, The Jackson 5. Eventually Richie went out on his own and scored the Number 1 hit song “Truly,” and had a succession of hits from that moment on. With Michael Jackson, he co-wrote the famous song, “We Are The World” in 1985, hoping to bring about much needed famine relief for Africa and raised a whopping 63 million dollars. More recently, Richie was asked to join the reboot team for American Idol in 2018 and also announced an epic 33-date tour across North America for the summer of 2019. The age of 70 doesn’t slow him down at all.
It is impossible to erase Lionel Richie’s 50+ years of musical influence. His biggest hit was “All Night Long,” with almost 130 million streams on Spotify from his second solo album, Can’t Slow Down released in 1983. The song is an indelible dance music pop song, tinged perfectly with a Caribbean beat. It is a wholesome, fun, and life filled song. Did you know that Richie found out, while in China participating in a Chinese idol show, they teach Chinese children the song’s lyrics in order to teach English? The inspiration for “All Night Long” was explained to Epoch Times:
“I’m one of those guys that – I don’t look for something new. I look for what people do everyday. And I noticed that, anytime I would come on vacation, everybody who can rap is on vacation doing a calypso dance. Everybody who’s singing Opera, they conform to some form of calypso or some form of reggae. So when I went back to do ‘All Night Long’ it was very simple. All I had to do was find that beat that everybody dances to when they go on vacation.”
The dance party video was was produced by former Monkee and TV video pioneer Michael Nesmith, and directed by Bob Rafelson – who co-created The Monkees back in the 1960s. It was also celebrated as one of the first multiracial videos to appear on MTV.
Listen and may you fiesta forever!
“Well, my friends, the time has come
Raise the roof and have some fun
Throw away the work to be done
Let the music play on
Everybody sing, everybody dance
Lose yourself in wild romance, we going to
Parti’, karamu’, fiesta, forever
Come on and sing along
We’re going to parti’, karamu’, fiesta, forever
Come on and sing alongAll night long (all night), all night (all night)
All night long (all night), all night (all night)
All night long (all night), all night (all night)
All night long (all night), ooh yeah (all night)People dancing all in the street
See the rhythm all in their feet
Life is good, wild and sweet
Let the music play on
Feel it in your heart and feel it in your soul
Let the music take control, we going to
Parti’, liming, fiesta, forever
Come on and sing my songAll night long (all night) oh (all night)
All night long (all night) yeah (all night)
All night long (all night) yeah (all night)
All night long (all night) (all night)Yeah, once you get started you can’t sit down
Come join the fun, it’s a merry-go-round
Everyone’s dancing their troubles away
Come join our party, see how we playTom bo li de say de moi ya, yeah, jambo jumbo
Way to parti’ o we goin’ oh, jambali
Tom bo li de say de moi ya, yeah, jumbo jumboOh, oh, oh, oh, yes
We’re gonna have a party, yeah, ugh
All night long (all night), all night (all night)
All night long (all night), yeah (all night)
All night long (all night), all night (all night)
All night long (all night)Everyone you meet, they’re jamming in the street, all night long (all night)
Yeah, I said, everyone you meet, they’re jamming in the street (all night)
All night long (all night)
Feel good, feel good (all night)”
