Lionel Richie [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster] (CD - 1982)

Personnel includes: Lionel Richie (vocals, piano); Jimmy Connors, Deborah Thomas, David Cochrane (electric guitar, acoustic piano, bass synthesizer, background vocals); Darrell Jones (electric guitar); Richie Zito (guitar); Michael Baddicker (synthesizer, vocoder); Ndugu East, John Robinson (drums); Deborah Thomas (background vocals).

Producers: Lionel Richie, James Anthony Carmichael.

Personnel: Lionel Richie (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, background vocals); Joe Walsh , Richie Zito (guitar); Tim May, Fred Tackett (acoustic guitar); David Cochrane (electric guitar, saxophone, piano, bass synthesizer, bass guitar, background vocals); Darrell Jones, Paul Jackson, Jr. (electric guitar); Le Vant, G. (harp); Assa Drori, Joy Lyle, P. Shure (violin, strings); Charles Veal, Jr., Mari Tsumura-Botnick, J. Shulman, H. Roth, D. Palmer, S. Sanov, B. Douglas, Endre Granat (violin); Allan Harshman (viola, strings); Alan DeVeritch, Gareth "Garry" Nuttycombe, Virginia Majewski (viola); Ronald Folsom, David Schwartz, Dennis Karmazyn, N. Ross, W. Kurash, Erno Neufeld, Myron Sandler, Henry Ferber, Tibor Zelig, Armand Karpoff, Mari Botnick, F. Sekura, Rob Dale, William Henderson , David Speltz, Harry Bluestone (strings); Louise Di Tullio (flute); Gary Herbig (woodwinds, saxophone); E. Cipriano, Don Ashworth, L. Williams (woodwinds); E. Watts, W. Green (saxophone); B. Findlay, G.A. Grant, W. Lucning, Jerry Hey, W. Johnson, Warren Luening (trumpet); Dave Rockin Duke, James Atkinson , Richard Perissi, Henry Sigismonti, A. Maebe, Brian O'Connor (French horn); Lew McCreary, William Reichenbach (trombone); Nathan East (brass); Michael Lang (piano, Fender Rhodes piano); James Anthony Carmichael (celesta); Clarence McDonald, William Payne (Fender Rhodes piano); Michael Boddicker (synthesizer, vocoder); Arni Egilsson, Buell Neidlinger (double bass); Nathan Watts, Joe Chemay (bass guitar); John "J.R." Robinson , Paul Liem, Leon "Ndugu" Chancler (drums); Richard Schlosser, Leonard Castro, Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); Jimmy Connors, Deborah Thomas, Howard Kenny, Kin Vassy, Richard Marx, Terry Williams (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Jane Clark; Suha Gar.

Liner Note Author: Steven Ivory.

Recording information: A&M Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA.

Photographer: David Alexander .

Arrangers: James Anthony Carmichael; David Cochrane; Gene Page.

Lionel Richie is forever enshrined in the popular imagination for his ballads, but his first solo album is more wide-ranging than that. Besides the three hit singles ("Truly" and "My Love" are classic Richie ballads, while the sleek and slightly more uptempo "You Are" is possibly Richie's finest solo single), LIONEL RICHIE focuses primarily on glossy early '80s dance pop/R&B. Richie and Commodores producer James Anthony Carmichael move beyond that band's beginnings as a loose, horn-led funk group, using synths and bell-like electric pianos over metronomic (but not stiff or artificial) rhythm tracks. Although LIONEL RICHIE came out several months prior to THRILLER, that album is a very close comparison sonically; slick pop-R&B grooves like "Serves You Right" and "Tell Me" have a similar mix of Top 40 smarts and soulful heart. The 2003 reissue of LIONEL RICHIE includes two bonus tracks, an extraneous instrumental version of "You Are" (the flipside to its 12" single) and a surprisingly effective solo demo of "Endless Love" that is nearly as good as the duet smash with Diana Ross.

Lionel Richie's solo career began while he was still in the Commodores, as he wrote and sang (as a duet with Diana Ross) the theme to the Brooke Shields romance Endless Love, which became a bigger hit than any of the group's singles, thereby setting the stage for his departure and his 1982 self-titled solo debut. He wasn't working in unfamiliar territory, or with new musicians. The Commodores decided to work as their own band, so their producer, James Anthony Carmichael, was able to devote his energy to working on Richie's album. Using the pop-crossover ballad style of "Endless Love," "Three Times a Lady," and "Easy" as their template, the duo turned Lionel Richie into a sleek, state-of-the-art record that, at its best, provides some irresistible pop pleasures. The key to its success -- and the reason it was scorned by some Commodores fans -- is that Richie doesn't even make a pretense of funk here, leaving behind the loose, elastic grooves of his previous bands (a move that makes sense, since his voice never suited that style particularly well), choosing to concentrate on ballads and sparkly mid-tempo pop, peppered with a few stylish dance grooves. The ballads, of course, provided two big hits with "My Love" and "Truly," two numbers that illustrate that he was moving ever-closer to mainstream pop, since these are unapologetic AOR slow-dance tunes. The other big hit, "You Are," is an effervescent, wonderful pop tune that showcases Richie at his sunniest; it's one of his greatest singles. Throughout the first part of the record, the dance numbers are served up and they're very good -- "Serves You Right" has a shiny, propulsive groove, while "Tell Me" jams nicely. After "You Are," the record bogs down with a couple of ballads that are on the wrong side of adult contemporary -- too formless, too hookless to really catch hold -- but they don't hurt the first seven songs, which form a dynamic mainstream pop-soul record, one of the best the early '80s had to offer. It's the sound of Lionel Richie finding his solo voice, and, the next time out, he knew how to use it even better than he does here. [The 2003 reissue of Lionel Richie includes two bonus tracks: a solo demo of "Endless Love" which not only fits perfectly with this record, but is less cloying, and an instrumental of "You Are" whose primary worth is to hear the detail and expertise in the production Richie and Carmichael assembled.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize