"Three Times A
Lady"
The Commodores
Motown 1443
he story of the Commodores began in
1967, on the campus of Alabama's Tuskegee Institute. While walking along, sax
in hand, Lionel Richie was stopped by guitarist
Thomas McClary. Thomas wanted to meet girls, and
figured a good way was to form an act for the freshman talent show. Was Lionel
interested in joining him? What a question.
Together they found William King, a trumpeter in the school band, and
rehearsed assiduously. Calling themselves the Mystics, they brought down the
house at the talent show. After that, they began to play dances, and talked
about someday being "bigger than the Beatles." When another campus
group, the Jays, broke up, keyboard man
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The Commodores played locally for $15 to $20 a night, and all the fish
sandwiches they could eat. In 1969, they added drummer Walter Orange and
bassist Ronald LaPread. By 1970, they were touring
extensively.
Motown signed the Commodores in 1971, and let them
open shows for the
The group's early hits, such as "Machine Gun" (1974) and
"Slippery When Wet" (1975) were ragged, funky R&B, appealing
mainly to blacks. Then, in 1976, their first ballad, "Sweet Love,"
became a Top 5 pop hit. After that, their records were unpredictable -- slow,
fast, hard, soft -- even country and gospel. "People know us but they
don't know us," said Ronald. "We're six different writers, six
different producers, six different arrangers, and we come from six different
ways." It showed, too, in such diverse hits as "Just to Be Close to You" (1976), "Easy" (1977), and "Brick
House" (1977).
Then, at a 1978 sound check, Lionel got the idea for the Commodores'
first number-one single. "My father told me that in 35 years of marriage,
he'd never told my mother how much she meant to him. I decided that I wasn't
going to wait 35 years to tell my wife, Brenda."
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The ballad he came up with, "Three Times a Lady," was released
in early June 1978. Seven weeks later, it was the number-one song in the
country. In all, it spent more than five months on the charts.
In 1979, there were two more big hits "Sail On"
and "Still." In 1980, "Old Fashioned Love" became a Top 20
single. By then, the Commodores had sold more than 25 million albums, and the
end was nowhere in sight.
"There's something different about us," said Ronald.
"Maybe it's just a feeling, but six little country boys have evolved into
a pretty fantastic musical force. The people we once looked up to are now
looking up to us. We like to think that once you have been exposed to the
Commodores, you will never have to settle for anything less than the
best."
In the early eighties, Lionel Richie began to
pursue outside projects, including writing and producing for Kenny Rogers and
Diana Ross. In 1982, he released his solo debut, Lionel Richie,
featuring his Top 5 hit "Truly." In 1984, after Richie
had formally departed for a solo career, the Commodores had a number-three hit
with the Grammy-winning "Nightshift." In the
In the meantime, Lionel Richie's spectacular
solo success eclipsed even the Commodores at their commercial peak. His
number-one 1983 album Can't Slow Down won the Album of the Year Grammy
in 1984 and contained five Top 10 singles ("All Night Long,"
"Running with the Night," "Hello," "Stuck on
You," and "Penny Lover"). It was said to be the biggest-selling
album in the history of Motown Records.
In 1985, Lionel cowrote "We Are the
World" with Michael Jackson, and the next year won an Oscar for the
number-one song "Say You, Say Me." The streak continued in 1986 with
his third solo effort, Dancing on the Ceiling, which featured five Top
20 singles. Those three albums alone were certified for
In 1992, following nearly six years' hiatus, Lionel returned with Back
To Front, a greatest-hits package that included some of his work with the
Commodores as well as three brand-new songs. He has won a number of awards,
including the Oscar and five Grammies.