Songoftheday 12/16/14 - What is happening here, something's going on that's not quite clear...

Lionel Richie - "Dancing On The Ceiling"
from the album Dancing On The Ceiling (1986)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (two weeks)
Weeks In The Top-40: 14

Today's Song of the Day is by Lionel Richie, who left his job as lead singer and songwriter for the R&B group the Commodores to go it solo, resulting in two hugely successful albums including the 10 million plus seller Can't Slow Down. In 1985 he contributed a song to the movie White Nights, "Say You, Say Me", that ended up the top single of that year, but instead of including it on the soundtrack, he squirreled it away for his next studio album. Dancing On The Ceiling, released in the summer of 1986, capitalized on Lionel's mainstream success, and veered totally away from his R&B roots. The title track, written by Richie with Mike Frenchik and Carlos Rios, is the epitome of a superstar going so white bread that it sounds like a commercial for some extra-sugary food. The video, involving a rotating set they danced around on to the befuddlement of Cheech Marin and Rodney Dangerfield, is the most energetic piece of bland fluff I've ever seen...

"Dancing On The Ceiling" climbed to #2 on the American pop chart in September of 1986, while landing at #3 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") and #6 (tellingly) on the R&B chart. Also, it must be noted that this "Dancing" song failed to make the dance chart. While it missed the top spot on the Hot 100 (kept out by 'Take My Breath Away"), his album went to #1 for four weeks. Internationally, the record went top ten in Britain, Australia, and the Netherlands.

And it also made another "top ten", as in my all-time most despised songs (led by "We Built This City" and "Invisible Touch", soundalikes to this).

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In 2010, British eurodance group Soul Seekerz released a cover of the song as a single....

In 2012, when Richie released his country collab Tuskegee album, he went with milquetoast trio Rascal Flatts for a reworked "Dancing On The Ceiling"...

Up tomorrow: some Cuban-Americans get tongue-tied.