Songoftheday 3/20/13 - Well my friends the time has come to raise the roof and have some fun...

Lionel Richie - "All Night Long (All Night)"
from the album Can't Slow Down (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (four weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 17

Today's Song of the Day is the song that made Lionel Richie a solo superstar in the early 80s. After leaving the Commodores, his first album was a success by all means, churning out three top-5 hits with the songs "You Are", "My Love" and the #1 hit "Truly". But nothing would come close to the success he had with his next set.

With the knowledge of such superstar R&B hitmakers as Michael Jackson's Thriller to compete with, Richie set out to record a short, tight album that like Jackson's seemed to have a hit in every cut. The first single released from the Can't Slow Down set, the Caribbean-tinged "All Night Long (All Night)", pumped up the energy that may have been lacking on his debut album, and included all sorts of sidetracks, like the faux-African chant, percussive interlude, and brass to the nines, with a simple song about having a good time, and for once forgoing the love aspect. He also, like Jackson, shot a high-production video (for an R&B song) directed by former Monkee Michael Nesmith...

"All Night Long" became Lionel's third #1 hit apart from the Commodores in the fall of 1983. In America, it topped the pop, R&B, and adult-contemporary charts, and made #5 on the dance list as well (his first and so far his biggest). In England, it was held off at #2 by Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" which itself was kept from #1 in the US by Lionel.

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In 1984, Lionel helped close out the Olympics with a performance featuring the song. Outrageous!

The same year he toured behind the album, and here he is with it..

In 1995, German house music act Umboza interpolated the record on their single "Cry India", which made the top-20 on both the British pop and American dance charts...


Another Club hit from 2007, The Cheetah Girls' "Fuego", also was based on the song...

Singer/songwriter Jason Mraz covered the song on his Live On Earth album...

The chord progression for the background was used as a backdrop for Enrique Iglesias' Jersey-tastic "I Like It"...

Texas rockers South San Gabriel took the song to a whole other place with their version...

YouTube stars Rhett and Link did an 11-hour marathon of the song for a clip of theirs...

...and lastly, Lionel Richie added the song to his countryfied "duets" album Tuskegee with Jimmy Buffett for the US market..

...while for Australia and New Zealand, he went with local Guy Sebastian, and took the single to the top-40 in both countries...

Up tomorrow: Canadian is in it for right now.