Songoftheday 7/20/14 - I had a dream I had an awesome dream, people in the park playing games in the dark...

Lionel Richie - "Say You, Say Me"
from the album Dancing On The Ceiling (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 16

I'm back from vacation, and there's no better way to get back to the groove than with the biggest single from 1985 from one of the hottest acts of the decade.

That year, a rather modest mainstream movie called White Nights was released, starring Russian ballet superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov and American tap dancer and singer Gregory Hines. The official soundtrack from the movie already had sent a single to the top of the charts in America with the duet "Separate Lives" from Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin. Another song from the film, "Say You, Say Me" from Lionel Richie, was kept off the album to not appear on a full-length release until the summer of 1986. With such a high demand from fans of the guy whose last album Can't Slow Down sent five singles to the top-40, with both "All Night Long (All Night)" and "Hello" reaching #1, the 7 inch (or 45rpm) single sold like hotcakes, while radio ate the ballad with a dance bridge up as well. The single marked the high point of his solo career...

"Say You, Say Me" spent four weeks at #1 on the American pop chart in December of 1985 through January of 1986. The song also went to #1 on Billboard's R&B and Adult Contemporary format charts as well. Internationally, the record was a big hit, topping the charts in Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, while climbing to #8 in the United Kingdom, #4 in France, and #12 in Germany. And while it's not as memorable as say, "All Night" or "Hello", the song succeeded in continuing Lionel's momentum towards his upcoming third album, which would include the track.

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Here's Lionel live in concert with the song...