Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome back to the Shirley You Can't
Be Serious Podcast. I am here with my co host
of all co hosts, mister Jason Colvin. Jason, how you doing,
man or? As they say in Africa, jambo jumbo.
Speaker 2: Hello, d You're the one I'm looking for.
Speaker 1: Tell me how to win your heart? Man, I haven't
got a clue.
Speaker 2: Well, my friends, the time has come to raise the
roof and have some fun.
Speaker 1: Guys, we are here to talk about Lina Richie's second
solo album, Can't Slow Down, and guys, just to give
you an idea. Eight songs on the album, five of
them were released as singles. All five of them hit
the top ten, two of them hit number one. It
is one of the best selling albums of the eighties
and was album of the year.
Speaker 3: This is a giant It's a gigantic album.
Speaker 2: When you and I talked about it beforehand, we both
had this album in our house, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I can remember little kids sitting on the floor.
You've got the record player on the shelf above your
head because you're so small, and flipping through those albums
and seeing Lionel Richie's smiling face on that kind of
wicker chair that he's looking at it at you off
of a very light blue veranda.
Speaker 2: You know, it was a very very well received album
for parents and kids alike.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I loved the songs on this. I can remember
listening to this LP growing up. It is a part
of my blood. If you will.
Speaker 2: This is a panty dropper for our parents, right.
Speaker 1: Oh gross, let's not think about that.
Speaker 2: Okay. So you mentioned that this is one of the
biggest selling albums of the eighties.
Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, I'm gonna blow your socks off of this.
You ready for this? Yeah?
Speaker 2: This is the eighteen h best selling album of the eighties.
It sold more than Pyromania Synchronicity nineteen eighty four Licensed
to Ill. Wow, this is a huge album. It is
also the third best selling album of nineteen eighty four.
And we've talked before, nineteen eighty four maybe one of
the best years of music ever.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is. It is literally a year that will
never be recreated. The artistry, the albums, of the songs,
the music that came out in nineteen eighty four was
a pinnacle that shall not be reached together.
Speaker 2: I totally agree. Listen to this top ten real quick
I'm gonna wow you right off the bat. Okay, so
Number ten seven and Ragged Tiger by Duran Duran. We've
talked about that album. We haven't covered it track by track,
but Duran Duran Huge. Number nine in nineteen eighty four
was the Footloose soundtrack. We've covered that album track by track. Yeah,
go back and check it out. Number eight Synchronicity also
covered it, covered that one track by track. Number seven
Eliminator by a Zezy Top.
Speaker 1: We have that one coming up.
Speaker 2: That one we'll be on the schedule for later this year.
Number six nineteen eighty four by Van Halen.
Speaker 1: Well, we definitely have covered that in one of our
very first episodes.
Speaker 2: Yes, I would like to break that one down, go
a little deeper.
Speaker 1: On the track by track on that one. We should.
Speaker 2: Number five You're gonna laugh. Color by Numbers by Culture Club.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna laugh. That was another LP that was
in the collection when I was a little.
Speaker 2: You've been after me to do this one track by track,
telling you it is a monumental album.
Speaker 1: I remember those faces in all their little circles.
Speaker 2: You're right, we need to do that one.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: Number four An Innocent Man by Billy Joel.
Speaker 1: We are comparing that album to this album. This is
our matchup. I mean, two gigantic hits of nineteen eighty four.
Can't wait to talk about that. That's right.
Speaker 2: Number three Cancelo down of course. Yes, Number two Sports
by Huey Lewis, which we've covered and man, one of
my favorite albums. Track by track, we did that one.
And number one of course, the Thriller. Okay, let's talk
about mister Lionel Richie.
Speaker 1: Say, okay, So Lionel Ritchie was born in Alabama, Yes,
grew up in Tuskegee. Actually restored the house that he
grew up in, came back and restored it. It was on
the Tuskegee University campus. Get this, It was given to
his family by Booker T.
Speaker 3: Washington.
Speaker 1: WHOA right, Wow, Yeah, so Booker T. Washington. I'm sure
probably in a lot of states they've got a big
school that's the Booker T. Washington School. In our area,
it is the same case. But the actual Booker T.
Washington gave Lionel Ritchie's family their home that he grew
up in.
Speaker 2: Incredible.
Speaker 1: He ended up going to Tuskegee University and was an
economics major minored in accounting. He actually went on a
tennis scholarship.
Speaker 2: That When I found that, I was like, you have
got to be kidding, because he looks like like one
of the least athletic people I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I mean the way he dances. He's a
little he's a small guy, but I mean those tennis
players are not usually but guys. Right. Then, despite his
major in school, he gives his dad a call one
day and says, Dad, I've got to join this music group.
We are going to be the Black Beatles.
Speaker 2: How Hey, he grew up in a home where his
grandmother was a classically trained pianist and music was just
kind of a big part. They sang in church. I mean,
is a traditional religious church musical family. And now he's
going to be the Black Beatles.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind how many years he's been doing this, right,
grew up with that family life. How many you know,
fifty years in the music business and he cannot read
or write music. It's crazy. Come on, that's crazy. Same
thing for Eddie van Halen, right.
Speaker 2: It's the same thing for Billy Joel.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so joined the Commodores, and I mean there's a
whole history there, but their first big hit, surprisingly since
obviously we've got the soulful voice of Lionel Richie plus
the other guys in the Commodores, it was an instrumental.
Speaker 2: It was an instrumental. That song is called machine Gun.
Came out in nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1: I know the song from growing up, but it was
also big in the Booge Nights soundtrack, which I wore
out in the nineties.
Speaker 2: For sure, You've got Lionel Richie's voice at your disposal,
and your first hit is an instrumental.
Speaker 1: It's crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 2: So within the Commodores, he's one of three singers and
one of like five songwriters. And we can get into
the Commodore's maybe at a later date, but basically they
would take turns. You know, you would get your song,
I would get my song, he would get his song,
and you trade off. Well, it's like the Beatles, right,
and Lionel Richie was the love song.
Speaker 1: Guy Swammy.
Speaker 2: I'm Easy in a funk band. He's the guy producing
love songs right. Well, after a while he starts getting
these love song hits, uh huh, songs like Easy, like
Sunday Morning three times a lady. You compare that to
like brick House, which he also co wrote. But the
guys in the Commodores started to get fed up with
Lionel Richie love songs, okay, little jealousy well, and he
starts making a whole lot more money because the writing
credits for these starts to pay off a.
Speaker 1: Lot more sure, and he's writing songs for other people
at this time too. I mean, he and Diana Ross
are doing stuff together.
Speaker 2: Kenny Rogers was the first one who came to him
and said, hey, I want you to write a song
for me. And he sits down at the piano and
he says, well, here's what I've got. Da da da
da da da da da Lady, Da da da da
da da da da da da And Kenny Rogers is like,
I really like it. Fill in the da da das.
Let's do it right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. That song goes number one in nineteen eighty Lady.
Speaker 2: For so many years I thought I'd never find you.
Speaker 1: Fantastic.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty one rolls around and Motown decides to pair
up Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross. Huh, and they come
up with a song Endless.
Speaker 1: Love and yr may tell me you big, huge, massive,
hit huge. He's outgrowing the band. I mean, the Commodorees
are great, but then there's next level. Yep.
Speaker 2: So the people at Motown go to him. They're like, hey, man,
you have said before that you are content to retire
as a Commodore, but we want you to try a
solo album.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So that album is called Lionel Richie. As you
do with your first album a lot of times, right,
get your name out there.
Speaker 2: That first solo album sold four million copies and you
mentioned it. My love that song hits number five, you
are that hits number four and truly goes to.
Speaker 1: Number one always. That makes my life.
Speaker 2: He talks about how he was a little bit scared
to go solo because groups had success. Right, solo artists,
it's iffy, you know, it's a real gamble.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, right out of the gate, he's got three
top five hits. So he gets together with a guy
that he's worked with before. This is the producer of
the album, a guy named James Anthony Carmichael. He produced Temptations,
he produced Jackson five, and of course he produced the Commodorees.
So Lionel Richie familiar with him one of his most
successful records. Yeah, is an arrangement and a production of
the nineteen sixty seven album Silver Throat Bill Cosby Sings What,
which included Cosby's number four US pop hit Lil Old Man?
Speaker 2: Is It?
Speaker 1: Because I cannot believe that has happened. I've said, right, job,
take my ram you like, what are you talking about?
I knew that you would love that little random, out
of the blue nugget. So that's that is producer James
Anthony Carmichael. You know. In addition to producing the Jackson five,
he also produced Bill Cosby's singing album.
Speaker 2: That is Hilarious.
Speaker 1: Hey.
Speaker 2: By the way, a quick story for you. When Lima,
Richie and the Commodorees were opening, they got a gig opening.
Speaker 1: For the Jackson five.
Speaker 2: Right, So think about Commodores Jackson five, and then we
move into the eighties. We've got Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: So this is when he decided to really take music seriously.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: So up to that point, it has just been fun, right, Okay,
So he's hanging out with the Jackson five and they're
having a great time. Well, he happens to catch a
check given to the Jackson five one hundred and eighty
thousand dollars check, just a personal check, like here you go, boom,
he says. Soon as he saw that check, he's like, hmm,
maybe ought to take this music thing a little more
serious than I am.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting to me that Michael and Lionel have
been in the same circle for a while.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you listen to if you listen to this album,
if you listen and can't slow down, the similarities to
some of the tracks on Thriller is unmistakable. Absolutely, both
of them are coming out in eighty three, and of
course they know each other and work together all the time.
They work with Quincy Jones together all of the time,
so it makes sense that you have this overlap. Not
to mention that you've got the guys from Toto playing instruments.
Lucather and Jeff Picoro are both playing on some of
these songs on this album, just like they did with Thriller,
So makes sense that there would be a similar sound
to these. But he's still nailing it. It's still his own.
It's still unmistakably Lionel Richie. Okay, guys, so we're gonna
go with these songs track by track, but just let
you know there are some pretty crazy stories that go
along with these songs. One of them will involve the
moment that Lionel Richie's first wife met his second wife. Yes,
the only problem was he was still married to his
first wife at the time. Yeah, that is one that
will come up in just a second. But stay tuned
for that one, boy.
Speaker 2: Yes, okay, I can't wait to hear that story.
Speaker 1: All right, let's jump in track by track. First song
of the album, Can't Slow Down, So both Thriller and
Can't Slow Down We're Big and eighty three. Thriller came
out in November of eighty two, Cancelor Down comes Down
in October of nineteen eighty three, but they definitely have
You can hear those similar sounds. Okay, So right out
of the gate, I'm getting a lot of flavors of Thriller.
The song Thriller, like You've got that dent and You've
it's got the same bass sound to it. It's got
the same kind of ambient celestial sound that goes on
at the beginning of the song. It's an entirely different song,
but it's got those those notes of flavor, if you will.
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, it's interesting that you say that, because obviously
this is the song where he gets the album title from.
Much like Thriller. For me, though, this is a miss
right right out of the gate. This is an incorrect
first track.
Speaker 1: Right you You are wanting this song to be big
and great. It's I don't dislike this song. It's just
not a tent pole as far as the eyeing goes, right.
I mean, we talked about the fact that this, I mean,
the bad average on this particular album is phenomenal, and
maybe this is a swing and a miss for being
the first song. It's not a bad song. It belongs
on the album. It's not a throwaway, it's not a skipper,
but it's it just doesn't quite compare to the rest
of the songs on the album.
Speaker 2: For me, sure, this is maybe a base hit between
the shortstop and the third baseman.
Speaker 1: You know, it's an order of war. You know, it's
an order of war before you eat the before you
eat the main course.
Speaker 2: Okay, so let me tell you this. I'm gonna try
not to say.
Speaker 1: No, it's order by the way, I'm just being funny.
Speaker 2: That's funny I got you. I'm gonna try not to
say this on every track on this album. This song
belongs on Miami Vice.
Speaker 1: Well, ironically, you're gonna be right on one of them.
Speaker 2: I am going to be right on one of the
We'll talk about when we get there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2: So Crockett goes to a club and he's working his
way past the dance floor to go talk to the
Colubian drug dealer. This is the song playing in the
background in that scene.
Speaker 1: I don't think you should stop your story, man, I
think let's tell the whole episode. How what else happened? Hey?
Speaker 2: I could talk by any by his all day long.
Speaker 1: All right? So, not the greatest, but not a bad
song for the album. Okay, starter, but not our main
course meal.
Speaker 2: Right, absolutely, let me tell you a story about maybe
the greatest twenty four hours in the nineteen eighties. Okay,
So January twenty eighth, nineteen eighty five. This is after
the success of this album, Can't Slow Down. Lionel Ritchie
is hosting the American Music Awards during the course of
this so he has to be there early. He shows
up for rehearsal as the host. He's got to be
there all day long. When they hit the awards ceremony
that night, he wins six statues during the course of
the evening that he's hosting.
Speaker 1: Wow right, how awkward?
Speaker 2: I know, right, Hey, it's me again. Yeah, And in fact,
he comes out he's real famous quote. He's like comes
up and he's like outrageous, all over the top.
Speaker 1: That's crazy.
Speaker 2: He wins favorite pop rock artist, wins favorite pop rock
video for a video we'll be talking about here in
a little bit, Okay, wins favorite pop rock video artist
about that same video. He wins Favorite R and B Artist.
He wins favorite R and B Male video artist, and
favorite R and B video Okay, six wins for the
show he's hosting. Once the show is over, he then
meets most of the musical guests that are attending to
record the song We Are the World that he co
wrote with Michael Jackson. Yeah, is that a great twenty
four hours?
Speaker 1: Or what the heck of a twenty four hours? Seems
like maybe you'd do one more album and retire for
ten years. Okay, So there we go. Can't slow down?
Are we ready to move on to song number two?
Speaker 2: Let's move on to song number two.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited because if this was the order of
this is our big hunkah awesome, smoking jerk statement. Oh okay,
if you don't hear these beginning drum beats and musical
instruments and him saying daddie and dada, and you don't
feel happy and relaxed, you got some things in your
life you need to deal with. Bro. This is a
song that just I mean, it's like the beginning of
Africa by Toto. It is so like puts you in
that zen state of there's not a care in the
world that I have that is as important as I'm
making it right now. This is happiness down in the Caribbean. Baby.
Speaker 2: This is a ten pole song of the eighties for me.
Speaker 1: This is the best song on the album. In my opinion,
You've got one of the greatest albums of the eighties.
This is number one, will always be my favorite song
of the album and Lionel Richie song to the top
of the list.
Speaker 2: I'm with you one hundred percent number one song the album.
Absolutely yeah. This song makes you feel like you're on vacation.
And it's funny because he wrote this song about going
on vacation, right He said to his producers. They were
kind of nervous about him releasing a Caribbean type of song,
and he's like, guys, listen, I've been around the world.
He goes, it doesn't matter who you are when you
go to the Caribbean. You could be an opera singer,
you could be a rap artist, you could be a
rock guy. Everybody dances to the calypso there, and that's
what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to encapsulate a
vacation in a four minute song.
Speaker 1: Now, you told me a story about how he had
this idea that hey, this is going to have this
Caribbean flavor to it, and he had kind of the
words and the verses, but he didn't have the hook.
Speaker 2: He didn't have the hook.
Speaker 1: Tell me.
Speaker 2: So. He had everything like raise the roof, have some fun,
We're going to party, Caramo Fiesta forever, come on and
sing a long.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you say next?
Speaker 2: Stun silence. He's got nothing, He has no chorus, he
has no hook. He went to a friend's house, one
of his doctor friends who's Jamaican, and after dinner he's
on his you know, like saying their goodbyes. He's walking
out to the car and he's like, I got to
go the studio, man, I got to go finish that
song that I can't finish. I got to find the chorus.
So I'm going to be up all night long, man
all night long, man all night long. And that is
how he came up with the hook for the song.
Speaker 1: It's fantastic.
Speaker 2: How about the loves?
Speaker 1: I can't believe he had the audacity to use a
Jamaican accent to his Jamaican doctor, especially such a bad one.
Speaker 2: Exactly right, how's my Jamaican accent?
Speaker 1: That's what I was talking about.
Speaker 2: This song is released August of nineteen eighty three. This
is the lead single. It hits number one in November
of eighty three. It also hit number one on the
Pop charts, the R and B charts, and the Adult
Contemporary charts.
Speaker 1: This is blowing them all out of the water. So
this one has a video, of course, right yes, And
it is produced by one of the monkeys. I know
what so Mike Nesmith, the guy one of the one
of the monkeys. I don't know how to say it.
Speaker 2: Hey, where the monkey is?
Speaker 1: People say we monkey around? Well, he quit monkeying around
and he decided to produce some videos, and he produced
the video for All Night Long. The song was also used.
You've mentioned this several times nineteen eighty four in the
Olympics at the closing ceremonies. Guys, we've done it, we've finished.
It is time to go party all night along.
Speaker 2: I love it, I love it. You know who is
dancing in that ceremony closing the Olympics with Liona Richie
playing All Night Long?
Speaker 1: Number one?
Speaker 2: You have Diane Alexander Okay, who's the woman who gets
beat up by Leona Richie's first wife. Here in a
second Okay Okay who later becomes his second wife. Right,
And also Cuba Gooding Junior was a dancer. What during
that ceremony?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, how about that? That is crazy?
Speaker 2: So this is interesting, right, there's all those sort of
African Wars words in the middle of it, right, Jimbo
Jumbo right told him to be right, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: You say that perfectly. It was like I was right
there saying it was born.
Speaker 2: And raised in Africa. He called the UN to try
to get somebody to help him with this African language,
and the UN. I don't know who you call like
dial up the un Hey can I speak with the
African person in charge? And they said, well, there's a
billion different African languages.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about?
Speaker 2: And one word in this language may mean something totally
different in this so it's all made up crap.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he totally made up some gibberish. Mama say mama,
saw ma ma musa, jimbo, jambo, tomali, tomola di da whatever,
it is nothing. It means nothing at all.
Speaker 2: There's actually a few nuggets in here. So kamo means
party in Swahili, okay, and jambo means hello in Swahili.
Speaker 1: I see, I was close. I was close.
Speaker 2: Hey you got hello? You got party? What what else
do you need?
Speaker 1: That's what the song is all about. Hello Party.
Speaker 2: By the way, this song appears in the pilot episode
of Miami Vice and Lionel Richie was supposed to be
in that episode. He was caught busy doing other things.
He was off on tour or whatever, and so they
got in somebody else to sing the song. I watched
part of this episode. The guy they got was horrible.
It was embarrassing.
Speaker 1: We should listen to that.
Speaker 2: Well, then Brad dis Cone.
Speaker 1: Rais has some fun.
Speaker 3: Done.
Speaker 1: Oh that's a stinker. Good motivation to never let somebody
else perform your song.
Speaker 2: Right, Okay, I've got a story that I could not
believe until I heard it from the words of the
army commander in charge.
Speaker 1: All right, So during the invasion of Iraq in two
thousand and two, Okay, do you know this story?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: On the edge of my seat. Okay.
Speaker 2: So when the US rolls into town, the Iraqis want
to let the US.
Speaker 1: Know that hey, we're friendly, You're welcome here, help us out.
Come on in, kid, you not.
Speaker 2: They start blaring all night long as a welcoming song
to the US. Yeah, okay, And in return, the US
from their home vs and stuff start blaring dancing on
a ceiling.
Speaker 1: That's great, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Wellyama, Richie is all about helping us and Iraqis make friends.
Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing. I did not know that Iraqi's
in the Middle East. There. He is huge in the
Middle East. Like people, if you meet people from the
Middle East and they're like, oh, hey, do you know
Lionel Richie, they'll go nuts. They'll be like, he is
the best singer of all time. It is. He is
huge in that part of the country. I can't tell
you why, but that was a tidbit that are in
across How about that? That's crazy.
Speaker 2: You know who sings back up on this song and
most of the songs on this album is it Richard Marks.
It is Richard Barks.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to say this, I'll throw this out there.
Calvin Harris Senior was an engineer on this album. He
also sang backing vocals. He is the father of Calvin
Harris Junior. Okay, okay. Calvin Harris Junior was ranked the
number five smooth jazz artist by Billboard Magazine. He has
toured with Prince Lenny Kravitz, Boys to Men, Earth Wind,
and Fire. For Rell Williams, I mean he Whitney Houston.
He is huge. His dad was the engineer on this
album and eight also backup singer for a couple songs.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fantastic. Yeah, Okay, We've got to talk about
the video real quick.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: This is a time capsule plucked right out of nineteen
eighty four yep. And it's breakdancing and partying eighty style.
It is so fun, I'd love it.
Speaker 1: Nineteen eighty four is when I was full in parachute pants,
Bandana's Michael Jackson jacket and glove break dancing fiend. And
I love watching the little little kid doing his breakdancing
moves in this video. Okay, I'm so glad I looked
him up. Okay, the breakdancer in this I mean one
of I'm not sure he was a little kid, but
one of the breakdancers in this video is Michael Chambers,
who you I hope no better as Turbo from Breaking
and Break into Electrical how about that? Right? Oh my gosh,
he moves on. He moves on from this video into
doing the ultimate breakdancing movie of all time.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's sequel Latric Boogaloo. Love it, man.
I love the rabbit holes that you go down sometimes
turn out with straight gold.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Just a fun video and a super fun song of
the nineteen eighties, right tent pole song on the album
Okay Are We Ready for? Song number three on the
album Let's Do It. Song number three is a song
called Penny Lover. Don't you be Cram? Can't you see
girls beating for you?
Speaker 1: Now? You talk about panty droppers? Oh my gosh, so
not ironically but appropriately wine. Richie wrote this song with
his wife at the time. His wife's name was Brenda
Harvey Ritchie. That's right. This high school sweethearts. High school sweethearts,
that's right. Yeah, tell me more.
Speaker 2: Well, here's the deal. She was a high school sweetheart
of his and like people in the business, thought that
couple will last forever, right right, it was legit love.
She loved him before he became a star. We'll get
to the rest of the story here in a second,
But that love story didn't last.
Speaker 1: Forever, right. So they had been married for quite a while,
like eighteen years when this about the time this album
came out. Okay, sorry, well I mean that he's still
like fifteen years about the time this album had come out,
right right, And she was a songwriter but hadn't done
a whole lot, but she did help him write this song.
This song is amazing, I mean, it is the what
it's the last single that came off of the album.
It was released September of nineteen eighty four, and it
was top ten hit, gotten to number eight in December
of that year, got hit eight on the R and
B chart, also on the Adult Contemporary chart, spent four
weeks at number one. Incredible beautiful song.
Speaker 2: So another top ten hit, number eight on the R
and B, number eight on the Hot one hundred and
number one Adult Contemporary. As we said, a panty dropper
for women in nineteen eighty three, okay, it was used
in the movie The Sure Thing.
Speaker 1: Have you seen that movie?
Speaker 2: No? I have not. John Cusack, Rob Reiners like first movie.
Speaker 1: Uh huh Daftning Zuniga. I need to check it out.
Speaker 2: It's so good man, we got to cover that.
Speaker 1: Well. We've talked about comparing that one to something else
and maybe say anything. I think maybe's what we talk about.
But be fun. That'd be great. Now. That is one
more thing I like. Don't you ever take Sweet Love
a wag?
Speaker 2: Jeffs I've got a story for you on this one, okay, okay.
Bob Giraldi is the guy who does the video. Yes, okay,
and he was a very well known video director at
the time.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think he did three of the videos on
this album.
Speaker 3: He goes on.
Speaker 1: He directs Love is a Battlefield by Pat Benatar. Yep.
Speaker 2: He also directs the music video Say Say Say by
Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson, which we've talked about before,
because Michael Jackson wins that arm wrestling contest when they
must out right right.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But for you eighties levers out there, he directed the
John Cryer movie Hiding Out in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the video for this song is interesting. It
is so incredibly eighties. You've got some girls wishing somebody
could buy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's it looks like a futuristic brothel of some sort,
uh huh. And she's telling the general see you later, general. Yeah,
he's wearing a navy uniform. Now.
Speaker 1: The girls all have right kneon hair, just like you
did back in the eighties. I guess with the strange cuts.
Speaker 2: They look very twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Lyonel Richie, however, is wearing a shoulder padded gemstone
emblazoned jacket. Yes, and then later is getting his shirt
taken off by one of these women. It's a testament
to the gold of the eighties that at the.
Speaker 2: Very beginning of the video there's like a love letter
that the girls read and it's like, tell the one
that is so special that I still love him, And
they all turn and look at Lena Richie and then
he begins to sing all.
Speaker 1: My dearest friends. The time has been too long since
I've been able to write to you. My life now
seemschizeds been this week and I.
Speaker 3: Am so.
Speaker 1: Please tell the one We're so special that my sweetlove
never went away.
Speaker 2: The music videos of the day are so fun to
go back and look at it.
Speaker 1: I just I want this to be the episode that
we get the most Jason Colvin accents that we can
have can we give me? Do that? I think that
so we got French, we got Caribbean. I can't wait
for what's next?
Speaker 2: Is so special?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. Okay, okay, So let's move on to
song number song number four. This song is called stuck
On You Stuck On got this feeling down deep in
the soul.
Speaker 3: Then that just came.
Speaker 2: Get them all way.
Speaker 1: I feel like two step in. I know right, this
is like a country song. Oh my gosh, I looked
there's no video for this song. When I started listening
the album again, I'm listening to this, I'm like, oh,
I love the song. I'm like, man, I didn't realize
how country and this could be On the country charts.
Speaker 2: It made it to the country charts. It reached number
twenty four on the Hot one hundred Country Songs.
Speaker 1: So if you look, there's no official music video to
this song. But that's okay because you have Lionel Ritchie's
picture on the cover of the single, wearing a cowboy
hat and a big old belt buckle. Baby, he looks great.
Speaker 2: Man. It's Lionel the Cowboy Ritchie.
Speaker 1: That's all the gold you need.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: This song is probably my number two on the album.
I love this. I love the song. It is straight
down the line on Lady and the other Kenny Rogers
songs that they've worked together on. Yeah, it is. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize how close in genre and in style
Lionel Richie is to Kenny Rogers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know. Yeah, well, country at that time was
becoming much more pop and much more soulful. Yeah, and
here we go with Lionel Ritchie. I mean he's raised
in Alabama, Baby, I know. Yeah, I mean that's how
it is, there, you go. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I noticed in the lyrics there are country phrases or
terms that I would consider country. Yeah, like Darlin calls
her Darlin, you know, and then he uses the term
mighty glad you state.
Speaker 1: Mighty glad you stay. Yeah, taking the Midnight Train. Man,
I love it, I love it yep.
Speaker 2: This song was released May one, nineteen eighty four, reached
number three in August of eighty four.
Speaker 1: Great song.
Speaker 2: Great another top ten hits.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If you listen to the lyrics in this song, it's
basically about moving a friend who's a girl into the
girlfriend lane.
Speaker 1: Right. It's it's upgrading, right, getting her out of the
friend zone, getting out of the friend zone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it reminds me lyrically. It's sort of similar
to the Survivor song called the Search is over All right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it was right before my eyes. Yeah, I
got that. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Another great one though.
Speaker 1: Got a feeling down deep in my soul that I
just can't lose.
Speaker 2: And when he says the guess I'm on my way. Yeah,
Oh that's just solid gold right there. Man, I love it.
Speaker 1: Great song. I love it. Yeah. All right. D So
that conclude side one of Can't Slow Down.
Speaker 2: Hit stop on your tape player, kick it out, flip
it over for side two. We begin side to with
the song love Will Find a Way.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the instrumentation on this reminds you at all
of the song Thriller.
Speaker 2: Wow, I was gonna say baby be Mine, but tell
me more.
Speaker 1: No, it could very well be baby be Mine as well. Okay,
so the co writer on this song is a guy
named Greg pillin Gaines. Okay, he's from Detroit. He started
playing him this is, this is I'm not kidding, started
playing piano by ear and was playing at the piano
bar Age two what his mom bought him a piano.
He ultimately later on gets discovered by Stevie Wonder and
then in nineteen seventy eight begins a three decade long
involvement with mister King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. He
is the guy who laid down many of the tracks
on the Thriller album, including this track that goes underneath
the Vincent Price rap. Oh that's great man. Yeah, so
he is the co writer of this song.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, and that makes sense right. This song to
me is that sort of light, funky synth, very very
eighties right. In fact, I would even say early eighties.
I could see Crockett working his way to the pretty
girl on the dance floor after talking to the Columbian
drug dealer to this song.
Speaker 1: Now, he did some solo work Yeah, and apparently one
of his minor hits was a cover of the Yellow
Magic Orchestra's song Behind the Mask. How's that for tying
in with an old Mariah Carey reference?
Speaker 2: Look at that?
Speaker 1: Yes, guys, Mariah Carey, we've covered on our Patreon episodes.
If you want to hear those super special episodes, I
promise they are all better than Mariah Carey, you can
go over to our Patreon page, which is patreon dot
com backslash Shirly podcast. That's s U R E l y.
Speaker 2: What a great tie in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go. You can hear all the stories
about the Yellow Magic Orchestra and Mariah Carey stealing their music.
So that's all I've really got on this song because
it's not one of my favorites.
Speaker 2: This one's one of the weaker songs on the album.
Speaker 1: It is kind of a panty drapper. Yeah, I mean
it's this is a style of music that is very
popular with a certain group of folks love this type
of music.
Speaker 2: I'm just not that guy.
Speaker 1: This is not my style. But that doesn't make this
a bad song. It's just not me right, Moving on
to the next song. That song is called The Only
One let me tell you know all that song Okay.
This song was co written with Lionel Ritchie by a
guy named David Foster. He has won sixteen Grammy Awards,
has been nominated forty seven times. Wow, And he also
was an executive who chaired the Verve Records from twenty
twelve to twenty sixteen. I mean, this guy is huge
and kind of under the radar.
Speaker 2: Where I know him from is?
Speaker 1: I know?
Speaker 2: He wrote the love song for the movie San Animl's Fire,
a little.
Speaker 1: Bit of nineteen eighty five gold right there, ladies there? Yeah?
So again though, another one that's just kind of an
okay song.
Speaker 2: Here's the thing with this song, this is just an
okay song. Yeah, But you add Lionel Richie's vocals to this. Yeah,
they're so smooth and effortless. They're easy like Sunday Morning,
if you will, perfect, But his vocals elevate the song
for sure.
Speaker 1: It's not a skipper, No, it's not a skipper. This
one you listen through and then you know you're excited
for running with the knight, right.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Let's get to the real good one here, all right.
Speaker 1: Second to the last song on the album, number seven
on the album Running with the Night, dude, I mean,
just set it up. I'm just in heaven right now,
because this is crashing eighties synthesizers, a very cool bassline,
the muted picking of the strings of a guitar. I mean,
I'm in, I'm in all over the place on this one.
Speaker 2: Hey, this is Lionel Ritchie's answer to Michael Jackson's Beat It.
It's motown meets pop rock. Yeah, it's Lionel Richie plus
Toto equals hit.
Speaker 1: Okay, So we've talked about this story before, but we
got to tell it again, right, Okay. So Steve Lukather,
the lead guitarist for Toto, one of the most underrated
guitarists of all times. He is phenomenal, right, phenomenal guitarist.
And he was a session musician, yes, and so they said, hey,
this needs to have a very rock feel to it.
Let's get Steve to come in and lay down a
solo on it. So they had done the whole song.
They wanted the solo not to be in the middle,
but at the end of the song, right, and so
Steve comes in, and he's an experienced guy, so he's like, hey,
just let me listen to it and see what I
can do. And so they're like, all right, and they
play the backing track for him that they've already covered,
right right, And so Steve Lucather does what you do
is a guitarist and you're trying to find the solo
is he starts noodling and he's picking it out and
he's finding little licks that he likes and he's like, okay,
grooving and I'm like, oh, I like that, like that
all right, gets done with it and he's like, okay, guys,
I'm ready to do the take, and the producer says
that was the take.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So the solo that you hear at the end of
this song, it was the first attempt at the soul.
Like he's playing around, he's fiddling around, and he creates
one of the most memorable solos of all time.
Speaker 2: He doesn't even know he's being recorded. He's just screwing
around with the guitar looking for the solo. Okay, I
think I can come up with something. No, that's perfect.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Thanks for puting get your check
from the receptions on the way out. It's in your
money today. Steve incredible, right, So now, This video is
directed by Bob Jerryaldi, who we talked about before. Yes,
this one is a wedding reception. Is where we start off,
and you've got a young pretty bridesmaid who is sitting alone,
very sad. And then he cuts to Lina Ritchie and
he's hanging out with his goofy buddies and they're all
being goofy, and then they're hooking up with girls and
Lina Richie's not hooking up with girls, and then they
end up crashing the wedding that this lonely bridesmaid has
been sitting. And then oh love is in the air,
and Lionel Ritchie hooks up with this young pretty bridesmaid.
Do you know who is playing the young pretty bridesmaid?
Speaker 2: I didn't until you told me and blew my socks off.
I'm putting my socks back on right at the moment.
Tell me who the bridesmaid is. The bridesmaid is Sheila E.
That's freaking Sheila E, the solo artist and drummer for.
Speaker 1: Prince Yes, dude. And what is crazy is there's another
connection with her and mister Ritchie. Ok. And we were
texting as we do you know when we find out
these little bits of gold that we have, we have
to text each other. So on Monday at eight thirty three,
I texted you and I said, Nicole Ritchie is the
biological niece of Sheila E. And your response was shut up.
So Nicole Ritchie, who everybody knows at this point was adopted,
was the adopted daughter of Lionel Ritchie, and she was
the biological daughter of one of his musicians, right right,
but starts staying with the richies when she is very young.
But her given name is Nicole Camille Escoveto. And if
you don't know, Sheila E. Is short for Sheila Escovito.
Speaker 2: How about that? That's incredible.
Speaker 1: What a great nugget that is, Auntie Sheila.
Speaker 2: It's a love bizarre. It's a love bizarre.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: This song reached number seven in nineteen eighty four, again
another top ten hit. The video when I watched it,
it looks like early Smooth Criminal, right, they're all wearing
fedoras and like, you know, yeah, the chrome suits and
all that stuff. It's fun awesome. Another Bob Girardi video.
What you already said, you know who plays drums on
this song?
Speaker 1: Not Sheilah Okay, now tell me Jeff Picaro.
Speaker 2: Of course, there you go. Of course, yeah that makes sense. Okay,
this song opened the AMAS when we talked about the
greatest twenty four hours in eighties music history. Yeah, this
was the song that Lionel Richie kicked off the AMAS
with Running with the Night, and then he bookens the
night with the recording of We Are the World Sweet,
which I've got a funny story for you.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: You know Prince was supposed to sing and we Are
the World.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we talked about this in our Huey Lewis episode
that Huey Lewis got the part in that song because
Prince did not show up.
Speaker 2: Prince was a no show. So here's the funny story, right,
go ahead. Yeah, so Lionel is orchestrating this whole deal.
He co wrote the song with Michael. We really need
to do a deep dive on we Are the World.
But it's time, and you know, where's Prince? Right? Well,
they get him on the phone, and Lionel gets him
on the phone, is like hey Prince, hey, you know
we're recording where are you get down here? And Prince
is like, well, you know, I don't really like to
record in a group. I like to record in a
booth by myself. Can I have that? And Lionel's like no,
I mean this is a we're doing the big video,
we're doing it all together. You can't have that. He's like, well,
I don't really do that, you know, I don't really
want to do that. And so anyway, he's trying to
convince Prince to come down and he says the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: He says, Prince, just.
Speaker 2: Come on down. We'll put you right next to Michael.
And that was the death sentence. Like Prince was like
dead silent. You could tell I said the wrong thing
and that was absolutely not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: So are we ready to move on to the final
song on the album?
Speaker 2: Let's move on to the final song on the album.
Speaker 1: What is the best name for the last song on
the album?
Speaker 2: Goodbye?
Speaker 1: No, it's hello? Hello? Is it me you looking?
Speaker 3: I can see it in your right.
Speaker 1: I can see it in your smile. Okay, So this
is the Hello before Adele. This is the original Hello.
This is Lionel Richie's Hello, and it's one of my favorites.
This is a video that I can remember from a
kid watching this thing. Because you had Lionel who was
fallen in love. Of course, of course another one by
Bob Jerryaldi, one of the three that he did for
the show. Lionel Ritchie is falling in love with this
girl in the acting class, but she's blind and he
think it's unrequited until at the very end he shows
up and she's sculpted his face in what looks like bubblegum.
It is the most frightening sculpture I've seen, so scarred
me a bit.
Speaker 2: This is the weirdest video of all time. But at
won at the AMA Awards, right, it won two awards
for being the Best Video, and it is so dumb.
It is painfully dumb. So here's the thing. So when
he's at you know, getting Bob Giraldi to do these
videos is a big get, right, right, And when he
shows up at the set, the very first thing Lionel
Richie does is he looks at the bust and he's like,
that didn't look anything like me. And Bob's like, yeah, okay,
you know whatever, Okay, So then they set up some
more and you know, an hour later, Lionel Richie's like, hey,
I don't know if you've seen the bus, but it
doesn't look anything like me. And then he's like yeah, yeah,
okay whatever he and so now it's time to shoot
that scene. And Lionel's finally like, hey, hey, Bob, hold everything.
That bus doesn't look anything like me. And Bob's like, well,
here's the deal, Lionel. She's blind. Okay, so we're going
with that.
Speaker 1: That's terrible, that's terrible. We can't oh my gosh. So
the inception of the song is interesting. This is one
of the ones that well, just a happy little story
on happy little accident, on how this happens. The producer
that we talked about before, mister Carmichael, Anthony Carmichael, is
looking for Lionel.
Speaker 2: Walking around the studio looking for Lionel Richie. Lionel Richie's
sitting at the piano. Linel keeps passing by him, Linel, Hey, Lionel,
where are you? And Lionel, as an answer to that question,
plays just a couple of little notes on the piano
keyboard and says, hello, is it me you're looking for?
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: At that moment, James Anthony Carmichael could have looked at
him and said, yes, where have you been? I've been
looking for you the whole time. Instead, he looks at
him and said, finish that song, And Lionel Richie's like,
what song that song that you just played for me.
He's like, it's not a song, it's just words, right,
And he's like, finish that song?
Speaker 1: Is it me?
Speaker 2: You? And I wonder what?
Speaker 1: I love it? I love these stories there's it seems
to be a song like this on every album. And
of course how perfect to put hello at the very
end of the album.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this song reached number one in nineteen eighty four.
Of course, it was the third single released on the
album and is a ten poll song for lyone.
Speaker 1: Richie, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 2: So interestingly, this was a holdover from his first solo album.
This was actually demoed all the way back in nineteen
eighty two. He had to be convinced. He thought people
would kind of laugh him out of the room when
he played this song.
Speaker 1: It's a little cheesy. Yeah, it turns out this.
Speaker 2: Is the biggest motown song of all time. Wow, Like
when you think about Motown, when you think about Smokey
Robinson and stuff like that, Yeah.
Speaker 1: This is the biggest song of all times. That's amazing.
That is amazing. Okay, guys, that is the end of
this album. But we are not done yet. We promised
you a story before we got started, and there's there.
The story is coming, I promise you.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's have it.
Speaker 1: So so this album was released. It obviously did fantastically well.
One's all kinds of awards best selling album of nineteen
eighty five. And so what does he do nineteen eighty
six He releases solo album number three, Dane on the Ceiling. Now,
you probably have seen the video to Dancing on the Ceiling.
And if you have seen the video to Dancing on
the Ceiling, then you have seen Lionel Ritchie's second wife.
There's a story that goes along with it, and I'll
let Jason tell us that story.
Speaker 2: Okay. So, one of the dancers in the Dancing on
the Ceiling video, his names is Diane Alexander.
Speaker 1: Sam girl who was dancing at the nineteen eighty four
o Elemper.
Speaker 2: That's right, and when you look at her, oh man,
she's majors. His wife, Brenda and him were going through
rough times, so they were separated for a while. Supposedly,
this is what he says.
Speaker 1: He said, we were on a break.
Speaker 2: And so they lived together and they were still married,
but he would sneak out in the middle of the
night and go see his mistress, Diane Alexander. Yeah, one
of the people who lived next door to Lionel Ritchie said,
he said, I would see him leave every night at
two o'clock in the morning, sneaking out the back door.
On June twenty ninth and nineteen eighty eight, Brenda Richie
decides she's had enough and she follows him to her
apartment and confronts them him at her apartment in the
middle of the night. Okay, and so what happens is
she remains very calm and she's very cool, and nothing
happens that is not true. She loses her ever love
and mind. Yeah, she breaks crap. She screams her head off,
She's busting up furniture. She starts to beat up Lionel Richie.
Speaker 1: Lionel Richie is like, baby, baby, it wasn't me. It
wasn't me.
Speaker 2: I was returning the library book her.
Speaker 1: Oh gosh.
Speaker 2: So the funny thing is is that she goes ape
crap and starts wailing on both of them, like, kicks
him in the balls. He said it was in the
stomach region.
Speaker 1: In the ball.
Speaker 2: She kicked him in the two brick houses, right, and
then she continues to pummel Diane. Alexander is like got
her on the ground and is wailing on her. So
Lionel Richie takes off, he leaves, He flees the scene.
Oh no, so he goes to a payphone calls the cops.
Of course, the neighbors call the cops because you can't
live in an apartment complex and scream your head off
and break furniture and go ballistic. So they come to
arrest Brenda Ritchie.
Speaker 1: Get this.
Speaker 2: When the police show up, she doesn't go peacefully. She
goes eight crap on them.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: They have to cuff her and hold her down like things,
like five of.
Speaker 1: Them to hold her down. They literally had to stuff her.
Speaker 2: So they arrest her for corporal injury of the spouse,
resisting arrest, trespassing, vandalism, battery, disturbing the peace. And while
they've got her down on the ground, they're trying to
cuff her hands, trying to cuff ankles.
Speaker 1: Stop resisting. This is a lot easier if you.
Speaker 2: Just laid back. They are trying to take care of her,
and the whole time she's screaming at Diane, help me
right the girl, she was just whooping, help me, Diane,
don't let them do this to me, help me, help me?
What come on? Oh my gosh, and guess what nobody
press charges?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and by the way, they tried to patch
it up. They were married for another three or four
years after this.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but ultimately get divorced. He goes and marries
Diane and they're together for quite a while as well. Yep.
Speaker 2: And then she dumps him because he won't he cuts
her off. He won't allow her to spend three hundred
thousand dollars a month. That was what she was wanting.
Speaker 1: She's hanging out with Tony Katine exactly. Okay, guys, that
does it for Lionel Richie. Can't slow down? Be sure
and hit that follow button so that you will catch
us next episode where we are going to talk about
mister piano Man himself, Billy Joel and his nineteen eighty
three album Innocent.
Speaker 2: Man, Miss Boy, I don't want to see you a
little good thing slip Away. Wow, what a fantastic out
that that matchup is gonna be huge, and I hopefully
we're gonna have John Reid with us on that one
and we'll talk about it track by track and figure
out which one we'd like best.
Speaker 1: Come back next week, and guys, if you haven't checked
out our YouTube page, we've got some cool videos on there.
Jason just went to the locations for The Outsiders and
Rumblefish and caught some cool video there, so definitely go
check that out as well. We will see you guys
next week.
Speaker 2: But this is a song where like Crockett goes to
a tub, Crockett goes to a club and he wants.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, I like it better when he goes
to a tub. He doesn't go to tubs and he
doesn't go to a club. He goes to a tub.