All Night Long (All Night)

Infobox Single
Name = All Night Long (All Night)


Artist = Lionel Richie
from Album = Can't Slow Down
A-side =
B-side = "Wandering Stranger"
Released = start date|1983|7
Format = 7", 12"
Recorded = Spring 1983
Genre =
Length = 4:16 (Radio edit)
6:25 (Album version)
Label = Motown
Writer = Lionel Richie
Producer = Lionel Richie, James Anthony Carmichael
Certification =
Last single = "My Love" (1983)
This single = "All Night Long (All Night)" (1983)
Next single = "Running with the Night" (1983)
Misc =

"All Night Long (All Night)" was a 1983 hit single for Lionel Richie. Taken from his second solo album "Can't Slow Down", it combined Richie's soulful Commodores style with Caribbean influences and contains an old Jamaican chant. This new, more dance approach proved popular, as the single reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the UK Singles Chart (for 3 weeks). According to an episode of "Reading Rainbow" in which Richie guest-starred, the song's theme is about a party that lasts all night long.

An accompanying music video was produced by former Monkee and TV video pioneer Michael Nesmith [cite web |url=http://classic.motown.com/artist.aspx?ob=ros&src=lb&aid=37 |title=Classic Motown: Lionel Richie |accessdate=2008-02-24] .

The song was listed at #76 on "Billboard's Greatest Songs of all time." [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/specials/hot100/charts/top100-titles-80.shtml]

Chart performance

Notable performances and other uses

Richie performed the song at the closing ceremony of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. He also performed the song as the concert's finale at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2006 in Oslo, Norway.

The song was featured in the pilot of "Miami Vice" as Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) walks across the dance floor to the boss that killed his brother. In 2006, this song was used in a commercial promoting Mountain Dew MDX. In 2007, a cover of this song was used in a commercial for the Conrad Jupiters Hotel and Casino; it was also broadcast over IndyFM TV between races at the 2007 Gold Coast Indy 300. The Cheetah Girls song "Fuego" sampled parts from this song.

U.S. military personnel told Richie that "All Night Long (All Night)" was playing in the nighttime streets of Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. [ cite web | url = http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=1974794&page=1 | title = Baghdad's Lionel Richie Obsession | author=John Berman | work= Nightline | publisher = ABC News | 2006-05-19]

References

Specific references:General references:
* The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits

External links

* [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=17:48597~T00C Song search results for "All Night Long (All Night)"] from Allmusic