Songoftheday 7/7/13 - I've been alone with you inside my mind, and in my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times...

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

Today's Song of the Day is by Commodore turned soft-pop star Lionel Richie, whose biggest album, Can't Slow Down, had already generated the #1 smash "All Night Long (All Night)" and top-10 follow-up "Running With The Night". His next single would end up to be one of his most well-known ever.

"Hello", written by Lionel and produced by himself and James Anthony Carmichael, was as easy-listening as they come, and won over the MTV crowd with it's cinematic (and unintentionally hilarious) video with Richie as an theatre teacher with a blind student whose got more than Rodin on her mind. Kind of creepy...

FYI, there's a facebook page just for the Lionel Richie head. Really. (Also, creepiest crank call ever.)

"Hello" went to #1 on the American pop, soul, and adult-contemporary charts in May of 1984, as well as in England, Ireland, and Australia. By far, this video is Richie's biggest.

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Ten years later, Luther Vandross would cover "Hello" for his Songs album...