Songoftheday 10/22/12 - Baby you'll find there's only one love yours and mine...

Lionel Richie - "You Are"
from the album Lionel Richie (1982)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top 40: 16

Today's Song of the Day is by former Commodore Lionel Richie, who by the start of 1983 had already scored two #1 hits under his name - "Endless Love", his duet with Diana Ross, and "Truly", the first single from his self-titled debut solo album.

For the followup to that ballad, Lionel released the midtempo love song "You Are" co-written with his wife Brenda, and produced by the singer with James Anthony Carmichael...

The song (my favorite from that album), made it to the top-5 on pop chart, #2 on R&B radio, and was his third consecutive chart topper on the adult-contemporary tally. However it just missed the British top-40 at #43. And it seemed his marriage wasn't as sunny as this song, as Brenda would be arrested five years later for catching Lionel and his future second wife canoodling at a hotel and beat the living shit out of him.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


This year, Lionel released Tuskegee, an album pairing him up with A-list country acts to reprise his biggest hits. In the case of "You Are", he teamed up with Blake Shelton (who if you don't know country you may recognize from The Voice)...

Up tomorrow: A Dutch band unlock a dimension of sound.