Lionel Richie
from Authors and Poets Hosted by Academy of Achievement
Singer-songwriter, musician and record producer, Lionel Richie, has sold more than 100 million records worldwide. A former student at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, in 1968, he became a part of the successful Commodores recording group. He began to write songs geared to the pop audience, including the timeless ballads, "Easy," "Three Times a Lady" (which sold two million records in the midst of the disco craze), his unstoppable momentum propelled him into a solo career in 1982. Lionel Richie soon created classics, "Lady" (the biggest hit of Kenny Rogers' career), "Endless Love" (which received an Academy Award nomination), "Truly" (which won him his first Grammy Award), "You Are," and "My Love." His album "Can't Slow Down" threw his career into overdrive, with worldwide sales of 15 million copies (the biggest selling album in the history of Motown Records), and yielded five hit singles, "All Night Long," "Running with the Night," "Hello," "Stuck on You," and "Penny Lover." In 1984, Richie won Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year and Album of the Year. Meantime, he co-wrote "We Are the World," a benefit single recorded by 45 musical stars ’Ŭ an "anthem for a new age of giving" ’Ŭ which raised $50 million for famine relief in Ethiopia. At the peak of his meteoric musical and recording career, Lionel Richie addressed the student delegates at the 1985 Achievement Summit in Denver, Colorado.
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