The Commodores

The new group consisted of Lionel Richie on keyboards, saxophone and vocals, Thomas McClary on guitar, William King on trumpet, Andre Callahan on drums, Michael Gilbert on bass and Milan Williams on keyboards. Legend has it, that King tossed a dictionary in the air, and when it landed, pointed to a random word on the page it opened to. The Commodores were born.

While they continued their studies, the group began performing in Montgomery, Alabama and quickly gained an avid following. A turning point in the group's career came when they met Benjamin Ashburn, a street-wise marketing expert who signed on as their manager. Through careful planning and extensive road tours, the Commodores gained worldwide notoriety by touring in the New York and European Club Scene. In 1971, The Commodores auditioned for the opening act of the Jackson 5 European tour. They were signed by Motown and toured with the Jackson 5 in November. They subsequently headlined in Japan and drew in 150,000 fans in four days in the Philippines, breaking the record the Beatles had set years before.

In 1974, their first album "Machine Gun" became the best-selling international album to date. The instrumental single "Machine Gun", written by Williams, crossed over from the R&B charts to the hit #22 on the U.S. charts.

The Commodores were still in university when they released two more albums. "Caught In The Act" earned them the Bronze Prize at the Tokyo Music Festival and the single "Slippery When Wet" hit #19 on the U.S. charts. The single "Sweet Love", from their third album "Moving On", became their first top ten hit when it went to #5 . After their own successful tour, they were asked by the Rolling Stones to open for them on a world-wide tour. Amazingly, the Commodores managed to continue their education by studying on the road and returning to take mid-terms and final exams.

During the rest of the 70's, the Commodores turned out more hit records including: "Just To Be Close To You" (U.S. #7), "Easy" (U.S. #4), "Brickhouse" (U.S. #5), "Three Times a Lady" (U.S. #1), "Sail On" (U.S. #4), and "Still" (U.S. #1). They performed to sold-out worldwide audiences, becoming the most successful Motown group ever. In 1977, they released a live double album "Commodores Live!" which hit U.S. #3. They also showed up in the movies in 1977, appearing with Donna Summer in the disco movie, "Thank God It's Friday".

In the eighties, Lionel Richie began writing for other musical acts besides the Commodores. He wrote the ballad "Lady" for Kenny Rogers, which went to #1. He also wrote and recorded the duet "Endless Love" with Diana Ross, written for the movie starring Brooke Shields. This single hit #1 and stayed there for nine weeks.

After "Still" had given them another U.S. pop and soul number 1 in 1979, confirming the Commodores as Motown's best-selling act, the group attempted to move into a more experimental blend of funk and rock on "Heroes" in 1980. The commercial failure of this venture, and the success of Lionel Richie's duet with Diana Ross on 'Endless Love', persuaded him to leave the group for a solo career.

In August, 1982, Richie had just recorded his first album, "Lionel Richie", when the Commodores manager Benny Ashburn died at the age of 54. The following month, Lionel Richie's first solo single, "Truly" was released, marking the end of his association with the Commodores. The single topped the U.S. charts for the first two weeks in November and was certified gold on December 9th. "Truly" was followed by two more hits from the album, "You Are" (U.S. #4) and "My Love" (U.S. #5).

His single "All Night Long," from this second album, "Can't Slow Down", hit #1 in the U.S. on November 12th, 1983. It stayed on the charts for five months, outselling "Endless Love" to become Motown's biggest selling worldwide single to date. The album stayed on the charts for three years, selling over eight million copies and producing three more top singles "Hello," "Stuck On You," and "Penny Lover."

In 1984, The Commodores continued on after Thomas McClary also launched a solo career with an album for Motown. He was replaced by Englishman J.D. Nicholas, formerly a vocalist with Heatwave, and this combination was featured on the group's enormous 1985 hit 'Nightshift', an affecting tribute to Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson that successfully captured Gaye's shifting, rhythmic brand of soul. The single reached the #3 spot on the U.S. charts and was named the Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal at the 28th Annual Grammy Awards. Later that year, the Commodores left Motown for Polydor, prompting Ronald LaPread to leave the band. Their new contract began promisingly with a major US soul chart hit, "Goin' To The Bank" (1986), but subsequent releases proved less successful.

Riding the on top of his wave of success, Lionel Richie was asked by Quincy Jones to co-write a song with Michael Jackson to help raise money for famine relief in Africa. After Michael and Lionel prepared for three days, the song "We Are The World" took only two hours to write. It became a worldwide number 1 single, with Richie, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Elton John, Kenny Rogers, Steve Perry, Bob Dylan, Daryl Hall, Bruce Springsteen and Cindy Lauper among the artists who are featured in the recording. Later in the year, he collected a number of awards at the 12th annual music awards: Favourite Male Artist Pop/Rock; Favourite Male Artist Soul/R&B; Favourite Male Video Artist Pop/Rock; Favourite Male Video Artist Soul/R&B; Favourite Video Single Pop/Rock; Favourite Video Single Soul/R&B. He also made a presence at the Grammy Awards, winning Album of the Year for "Can't Slow Down" and tying for Producer of the Year.

The song "Say You, Say Me", the theme of the movie "White Nights" starring Gregory Hines and Mikhael Baryshnikov, hit number 1 on December 21st. With this hit, Lionel became the only songwriter in history to write nine #1 songs in nine consecutive years. "Say You, Say Me" also won Richie an Oscar for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards in 1986.

Lionel's third album "Dancing on the Ceiling", released in 1986, sold over four-million albums by May 1987 and produced several hits including: "Dancing on the Ceiling" (U.S. #1), "Love Will Conquer All" (U.S. #9), "Ballerina Girl" (U.S. #7), and "Sela" (U.S. #20).

The Commodores meanwhile, made an unexpected return to the UK chart in 1988 when "Easy" was used for a television commercial for the Halifax Building Society, and reached number 15.

The following three years were trying for Richie. His personal life took a tragic turn when he separated from his wife of 17 years, his father passed away, and he developed polyps on his vocal cords. After two operations, his left vocal cord haemorrhaged in October of 1991.

He subsequently took more time between projects for "growth" and "introspection," which led to the creative ventures heard on 1992's "Back to Front", 1996's "Louder Than Words", 1998's "Time", 2001's "Renaissance", 2003's "Encore" and 2003's aptly titled "The Definitive Collectio.

In 2004, Lionel was back in the musical spotlight again with "Just For You", his first studio album release in over three years. In support of the CD, he toured France, England, Germany and the US.