[TR24][OF] Lionel Richie - Lionel Richie - 1982/2015 (R&B, Soul, Funk)

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.
Lionel Richie, vocals, piano
Joe Walsh, guitar
Richie Zito, guitar
Timothy May, acoustic guitar
Fred Tackett, acoustic guitar
David Cochrane, guitars, saxophone, piano, bass synthesizer, bass, background vocals
Darrell Jones, guitar
Paul Jackson, Jr., guitar
Le Vant, G., harp
Gary Herbig, woodwinds, saxophone
Donald Ashworth, woodwinds
E. Cipriano, woodwinds
L. Williams, woodwinds
E. Watts, W. Green, saxophone
B. Findlay, trumpet
G.A. Grant, trumpet
W. Lucning, trumpet
Jerry Hey, trumpet
W. Johnson, trumpet
Warren Luening, trumpet
Dave Rockin Duke, French horn
James Atkinson, French horn
Richard Perissi, French horn
Henry Sigismonti, French horn
A. Maebe, French horn
Brian O'Connor, French horn
Lew McCreary, trombone
William Frank 'Bill' Reichenbach Jr., trombone
Nathan East, bass
Michael Lang, piano, Fender Rhodes piano
James Anthony Carmichael, celesta
Clarence McDonald, Fender Rhodes piano
William Payne, Fender Rhodes piano
Michael Boddicker, synthesizer, vocoder
Arni Egilsson, double bass
Buell Neidlinger, double bass
Nathan Watts, bass
Joe Chemay, bass
John 'J. R.' Robinson, drums
Paul Liem, drums
Leon 'Ndugu' Chancler, drums
Richard Schlosser, percussion
Leonard Castro, percussion
Paulinho Da Costa, percussion
Jimmy Connors, background vocals
Deborah Thomas, background vocals
Howard Kenny, background vocals
Kin Vassy, background vocals
Richard Marx, background vocals
Terry Williams, background vocals
Recorded from 1981–82 at A&M Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Engineered by Fred Law, Stephen Johnson, Michael 'Mike Dee' Johnson, Jim Cassell, Calvin Harris
Produced by James Anthony Carmichael and Lionel Richie
Digitally remastered