Customer Reviews

Lionel Richie

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Lionel Richie had no problem switching from the mighty Commodores to being a solo artist. Here, he does an unbelievably remarkable job with such hits as "Truly", "My Love", and other tunes such as the eerie "Wandering Stranger" and the opening "Serves You Right". And "You Are" is a wonderful one, not really displayed on Richie's compilations very much. LIONEL RICHIE is probably, in my book, one of the best R&B albums of the 1980s, and I highly recommend it.

In Lionel Richie's first album since his departure from the Commodores, he showed why he had become the undisputed leader of that classic '70s group. While the "softer side" dominates this and all of his solo efforts, it is a high-quality softer side for sure.

I am not overall a "dance music" person, but I can't help but tap my feet to such catchy numbers as "Serves You Right" and "Tell Me". Great uptempo stuff. "My Love" sounds very much like a vintage Commodores' ballad, and "Truly" is one of the beautiful love songs of its time. "Round And Round" is another fine song on this effort. But to me, the best song is the forgotten "You Are", which to this day is one of my very favorite Lionel hits. Pleasant mid-tempo track with beautiful lyrics.

The album weakens just a bit with the last two ballad tracks, the last one ("Just Put Some Love In Your Heart") being less than 2 minutes long. Clearly, one more uptempo track would have helped at this point. Nonetheless, this album was just the beginning of about 5 hugely successful years in Lionel Richie's solo career. For sure, he got off to a very fine start here. And quite obviously, the Commodores were never the same without him.

Lionel Richie, singer and leader of The Commodores had penned great songs like "Three Times A Lady" and "Easy"(later cover by Faith No More) for his band and the US #1 duet "Endless Love" with Diana Ross & Kenny Rogers big hit "Lady". It was a natural step in a great artist career to go solo, and Lionel proved he was just as good as a solo singer then a member of the Commodores. With the release of his epnymous debut album he stays on fammiliar territory with mostly slow jams and midtempo R&B, simular to what he did with Commodores, but not too many funky energic uptempos, but this is what he's best at. Lionel was also involved in the writing of all songs and apart from some latter albums this feels very personal since all songs have great lyrics easy to relate too. Three quite big hits are included here, a wonderful ballad "Truly" (Us #1) and midtempo "You Are" and loveballad "My Love" the rest are songs to discover and actally most of them are great. "Serves You Right" a typical breezy 80's R&B song that sound like it could have been made for Michael Jackson. "Wandering Star", a love-ballad and definite highlight. "Tell Me", an other midtempo 80's style and last but not least the charming "Round and Round" which sound like it was from the 70's. The last two songs "You Mean More To Me" and "Just Put Some Love In Your Heart" are forgettable adult contemporary ballads that doesn't add much to the overall record, but out of 7 songs 9 are great. Unfortunately this album is a bit overlooked, and few reviews have been made to it neither. This album would launch his solo career and with the next album he would be a superstar. Even if this may be less commercial the the upcoming 2 grand slams he made, it's perhaps his finest work and defenitely recommended for people that apreciate good music.

Who could forget the legendary lead singer of the 70's and early 80's funk group, The Commodores? After a successful run with his gang, Lionel Richie embarked on a solo career and his trademark soulfully smooth, yet somewhat gravelly voice won our hearts once again. With Richie's self-titled 1982 album, we hear him break from his funk roots and pursue a silky, pop-rock collage of love songs and danceable numbers.

"Serves You Right" - Very catchy beats and keyboard melodies. Lionel just flat out tells it like it is.

"Wandering Stranger" - One of my favorites. Smooth-flowing vocals and piano. This is a very emotional song. Richie challenges you to not shed a tear or two. His voice just soars.

"Tell Me" - Now we're back to the bouncy beat and demanding lyrics. And Richie brings back the horns like from his days with The Commodores.

"My Love" - For those who are familiar with Lionel's days with The Commodores, this song should song strikingly familiar. Remember their song, "Easy?" Well, this song is basically the flip-side of it. This smooth groove and soulful harmonic vocals will have you kicked back and relaxed in the arms of your significant other.

"Round And Round" - This unique song is probably my favorite from the album. I remember this song being on side B of my parents' 45 record of "Stuck On You." So I used to play this song on my record player a lot. With lightly swirling, atmospheric keyboards, groovy piano chords, an intense orchestral background and loud, demanding harmonies all amongst a catchy beat that you can rock to, this song is way cool!!

"Truly" - Lionel shifts the gears down a few notches to give us a wonderful, passionate, free-flowing love song. Richie as always, buts his heart into his song and demands you to believe in what he is singing.

"You Are" - I love this song. The harmonies are awesome, the melody is fantastic, the beat is incredibly catchy and the background horns are a wonderful touch as always.

"You Mean More To Me" - Another silky, soulful love song from Lionel. His voice soars softly and passionately amongst gorgeous piano work and strings. How can you not feel like slow dancing to this song?

"Just Put Some Love In Your Heart" - Lionel sends us an inspiring message in this short but sweet and smooth number. Listen to this song and perhaps many questions will be answered. It is a neat way to end this album. Richie is basically leaving us with some closing remarks to think about after his magnificent performance.

So if you want an album to put in your CD player to set off a romantic mood, if you want to kick back and relax, or if you feel like doing some soft groovin', than this is the album for you. You can't go wrong with one of the best vocalists of the 1980's. He will take you to a whole other dimension.

Lionel Richie is One of the Greatest Musical Genius's to Ever create Music period. He showcases His Greatness on his solo Album the self title Album. "Truly", You Are" are still classic songs. Serves You right is tight cut. the Production is on point as is the Overall Musical Arrangements. Lionel Richie Is one of the Few Artists that has truly gotten what the concept of Words&Music truly means. he did a very Good Job here. Vocally he is on point as well. a very strong Debut. I have this on Record, Tape&Disc including the Re-mastered Bonus Disc. Props Always to Lionel Richie.

Commodores member Lionel Richie left the R&B band in 1981 to pursue a solo career thus working on this album. His first non-Commodores hit was his personally penned ENDLESS LOVE,a duet with ex-Supreme Diana Ross. That was from the 1981 film of the same title starring Brooke Shields. It would be later covered by Luther Vandross and Mariah Carey. Hits from this album include TRULY and YOU ARE. According to Norm N. Nite's Rock On Almanac,this album was one of the top albums of 1982 although it only spawned two Top 20 hits. Richie's 1983 follow-up CAN'T SLOW DOWN would be an even bigger hit,resulting in winning a multitude of Grammys. As for the Commodores,they would disband in 1985.

With the massive, world-wide success of "Can't Slow Down", Lionel Richie's first solo album was somewhat forgotten. Though it orignally spawned a number of hits, only one song from the album, Truly, has aquired status as a classic. "Lionel Richie" is however a much stronger album than you might think, and while "Can's Slow Down" is certainly superior, as a whole this album stands above "Dancin'on the Ceiling".
Lionel Richie has never been an innovator, but what he does, he does extremely well. The songs on this album all display his superb ability to craft wonderful ballads and dance numbers. Many of the songs certainly deserve to be right up there with his biggest hits. A bit more pop than funk, the album shows that he had moved in a different direction than the Commodores. Whether one prefers his solo work to his work with the Commodores or not, there is no denying that he delivered a very solid debut album, which deserves to be pulled off the shelf again. Hopefully the new reissue will introduce more people to this underrated gem.

I wish Lionel and the boys (Commodores) would do a reunion tour, but until then, I'll just play this cd. This was his first solo project and by far the best.

It must have been a heady, confusing time for Lionel Richie in 1981. He had been the ballad voice of the Commodores, scoring hits with personal love songs like "Still," "Three Times A Lady," and "Easy." He then wrote and helped produce two of the 1980s' biggest hits, Kenny Rogers' "Lady" and his duet with Diana Ross, "Endless Love." Richie's melodic but dated 1982 debut bridged those single-song solo successes to his career-defining, top selling 1984 LP, "Can't Slow Down."

The choice to go solo was slow, painful, and reluctant; Richie's voice would compete on the radio with college friends he called "my brothers...my second family" in the liner notes. On "Wandering Stranger," a touching but overlong ballad with an odd Joe Walsh solo, Richie sings what might have been a plea to his longtime friends: "Oh I know I'm hurting you/but please try to understand/my peace is all I'm after..."

Richie took but what he needed from the group's signature sound: two lush, dramatic ballads, "Truly" and "You Mean More To Me," slick, drum-programmed R&B like "Tell Me" (background vocals by tennis star Jimmy Connors) and the pretty "You Are," a touch of country-soul with "My Love," Rogers on background vocals. He received support on these from Commodores arranger James Anthony Carmichael and Gene Page, leaving his remaining bandmates their funk slammers and air-tight soul harmonies while trying to replicate then-hot R&B stars Luther Vandross, Jeffrey Osborne, even Maurice White on "Round and Round." (Ironically, the Commodores' hard southern R&B of "Brick House" and "Too Hot To Trot" have aged better than much of Richie's 80s-style production here.)

Despite the songs here only beginning his mammoth 1980s singer/songwriter success, Richie proved nothing here he hadn't shown with the Commodores' tighter musicianship. He was a superb melody writer and arranger, an expressive vocalist if schmaltzy lyricist, whose specialty was the sweet, sentimental love ballad. The best songs on "Lionel Richie" are heard in better company on his "Truly" love song collection (including Commodores' tracks) or his "Back To Front" semi-best of, leaving this first solo step an extra step for casual fans.

This was Lionel's first solo album since he departed from the Commodores in early 1982. It was also Motown's second best selling album (at that time). Still riding high with his #1 hit song, "Endless Love" (with Diana Ross), Lionel hit #1 again with the album's lead single and memorable ballad, "Truly." It won Lionel his first grammy as a solo artist in 1983. In early 1983, Lionel released "My Love" and "You Are" as singles of which both were top 5 pop and R&B hit singles and were more recognized on the adult contemporary radio stations throughout the US. "Just Put Some Love In Your Heart" and "You Mean More To Me" were short. yet very sweet (the latter was known for Lionel breifly performing it for a child in the studio during the taping of Motown 25). They were the B-side singles to "Truly" and "You Are," respecitively. The Greg Philliganes-Richie penned "Serves You Right" was one of the few dance/R&B flavored songs on the album that was a track favorite and also known for Lionel's performance on Soul Train in 1982. Lyrically clever and combative. "Wandering Stranger" was the first of few of Lionel's solo songs to dabble in the country genre (appropriate for the Tuskegee born native) with some soul. Although the album was mainly ballad oriented, it serves to be one of 1982's best albums for not only the black community, but for the mainstream audiences.