I am back from Ohio University’s Music Industry Summit (awesome) and Southwest Love Fest (also awesome)! I know that this is overkill to some of you, but I posted about my SWLF adventures on Instagram and used it as the inaugural post on my coaching website, in case you’re interested in hearing more.
I’m full of thoughts and observations, but this series is about music, so let’s continue. For those just now checking this out, Five Star Jamz is a series, in which I discuss (in near-alphabetical order) every song rated 5 stars in my Apple Music library. I started the series right around the time of my 40th birthday in 2016, then abandoned it. I’m picking it back up from the beginning, and we’re still in the “A”s, so you’re gonna be here for a while if you decide to stick with me.
Moving on…
“All Night Long (All Night)” by Lionel Richie (Motown, 1983)
It perplexes me that some folks out there actually consider Lionel Richie and/or his music sexy. He’s always reminded me of your square uncle who has a sentimental streak when he’s drunk, or your sentimental, soft-hearted uncle who becomes Urkel when he’s drunk. “All Night Long” (with a subtitle hastily added by Motown because they had another single with the same title by another act climbing the charts) is corny as hell. But very few musicians (if any) sold corny like Lionel Richie. It’s how he appealed to Middle America without being considered a sellout (at least until “Dancing on the Ceiling” came out). It’s why “All Night Long” holds up even if parts of it (Lionel’s slight island accent conjures up thoughts of Miss Cleo) haven’t aged well in the forty years since its release. It’s the reason “All Night Long” is the..uh, longest Number One single of Lionel’s career as a solo artist (minus “Endless Love”, which benefited from a movie tie-in as well as the star power of Diana Ross). It’s still the showstopping closer at Lionel’s concerts, and one time I sang it at this karaoke bar that had a mezzanine and this bachelor party full of middle-aged White women came down from the mezzanine to dance with me.
I also gotta take a second to acknowledge the boldness and savvy of Lionel during this stretch. His debut solo album came out in the fall of 1982 and was a fairly massive hit, but it got overshadowed by Thriller, which came out a couple months later. Lionel, who had history with MJ (as a member of The Commodores, he’d opened many dates for The Jackson Five) was like “aight, bet”, and his second solo album, Can’t Slow Down (which contains “All Night Long”) was a quite obvious attempt to recreate Thriller’s mojo while sanding off the edges that made Thriller as much of an artistic triumph as a commercial one. He rips off “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” with the title track. He rips off “Beat It” (the song and video) with “Running with the Night”. And while the end result wasn’t the biggest selling album in history, Can’t Slow Down was Motown’s best-selling album of all time (it still might be, actually) and won the 1984 Album of the Year Grammy. I guess the only thing to do after that was join forces, and that’s how we got “We Are the World”, folks.
*that’s not how we got “We Are the World”.
“All Night Thing” by The Invisible Man’s Band (Mango, 1980) + “Annie May” by Tony Toni Toné (Mercury, 1996)
There was no lawsuit as far as I know, but “Annie May” rips “All Night Thing” much more obviously than “Blurred Lines” ripped “Got to Give It Up”. There probably wouldn’t have been much money in the suit, anyway. TTT’s slammin’ yet derivative (see! they’re not mutually exclusive!) tune was a non-single on a (very, very good) album that barely sold a million copies. Anyway, “All Night Thing” is an awesome disco/funk jam that’s impossible to dance to. It’s one of my favorite one-hit wonder tunes by a band that wasn’t exactly a one-hit wonder. The Burke brothers (four of whom made up the IMB) had a gigantic hit earlier in the ‘70s as The Five Stairsteps with “O-o-h Child”.
Lyrics aren’t especially important here. The subject matter of “All Night Thing” is fairly consistent with those of most disco songs. There’s gonna be a party, it’s gonna be a great time, and you’re gonna dance (and possibly fuck)! The Tonyies’ variation on “All Night Thing”’s groove is a little more lyrically interesting, if slightly obtuse. The titular character is a highly intelligent (has a Master’s!) freak (doesn’t wear panties) who can’t decide whether she’s into a girl or a guy? Can’t she have both? She should have both! I just came from a fucking polyamory conference! Multiple lovers for everyone!
“All Out of Love” by Air Supply (Arista, 1980)
Black folks (especially Black folks from the Caribbean) have a soft spot for all things soft rock. Between my grandmother’s preference for NYC’s premier adult contemporary station, Lite-FM, during my teenage years and my addiction to America’s Top Ten and Solid Gold in my early childhood, I got more than my fill of Australian soft rock outfit Air Supply and the dulcet tones of Graham Russell (tall, blondish, straight hair) and Russell Hitchcock (short, dark and curly hair, heavily tattooed…yeah, I’m surprised too).
“All Out of Love”, the band’s second big hit single in the US, is one of the tastiest slices of cheese to emerge from the era that brought us Christopher Cross (who’ll appear later) and Barry Manilow (who won’t). Graham sings the verses, and Russell sings the choruses. They trade vocals during the bridge, singing “what are you thinking of?” back and forth until Russell stops time (and the song) with a “what are you thinking of?” where the “of” lasts for like fifteen seconds. This little Australian man proceeds to sell the hell out of “All Out of Love”’s back half. It’s a scenery-chewing performance that Celine Dion would be proud of. This is on my “to-do” karaoke list if I can find a willing partner and enough alcohol to chance it.
“All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers (Island, 2004)
I had a major VH-1 phase from like 2003 to 2006. I had weekends off for the first time in my life (after ten years as a full-time member of the workforce) and generally spent my Saturday mornings parked in front of the TV watching Aamer Haleem (and later, my pal Jim Shearer) host the network’s Top 20 video countdown. There was a lot of Nickelback, a lot of 3 Doors Down, a lot of Alicia Keys (the video for “If I Ain’t Got You” runs on a loop in my head forever), a lot of Usher, and a lot of The Killers.
I resisted the attraction to this band, who seemed to me like an obnoxious millennial update of Duran Duran minus the self-awareness. “Somebody Told Me” and “Mr. Brightside” left me cold for years (I’ve come around on both). “All These Things That I’ve Done”, however, got me. To this day, I’m not sure how this song lassoed me (hahaha if you’ve seen the video) immediately while the other (bigger) hits didn’t. It can’t be just the “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier” part. Can it?
The Killers have continued to make music in the two decades (!!!shudder!!!) since their early sad days, and most of it’s pretty interesting. This is still my favorite song of theirs, though.
“All This Love” by DeBarge (Gordy/Motown, 1983)
Eldra DeBarge’s voice is a thing of beauty. I’m not a believer, but the fact that this man has kept this beautiful voice after forty-something years as a musician with a lengthy history of abuse of various kinds (like Chaka Khan) makes me wonder if some divine intervention isn’t at play.
“All This Love” was the third single and title track from DeBarge (the family group that featured El as a co-lead singer)’s breakthrough album. It’s a gently swaying ballad with heart-on-sleeve lyrics. It’s got a slight Latin air, at least partially because of José Feliciano’s very pretty guitar solo during the bridge. It’s an incredibly sophisticated composition, which makes the fact that El was not even 21 when he wrote it quite surprising. Given El’s obvious love for Marvin Gaye, it’s not a surprise to hear that “All This Love” was written with Marvin in mind. I think it worked out just fine as a DeBarge track, although part of me wonders what Marvin would’ve done with it.
Running tally-type shit because I like stats:
Total songs: 43
4 songs from the 1960s
10 songs from the 1970s
20 songs from the 1980s
5 songs from the 1990s
1 song from the aughts
3 songs from the 2010s
12 songs by male solo artists, 20 songs by duos/groups/bands, 8 songs by female solo artists, 2 collaborative performance by two (or more) solo artists, 1 collaborative performance between two groups (although what did Cult Jam actually do?)
Michael Jackson appears on five songs on this list so far (one as a solo artist, three as a member of the Jackson Five, one as a background vocalist.) Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell (as a duo) and Stevie Wonder appear twice so far.
Up next: bombast, restraint, and the Black national anthem of the 21st century.