Lady (Kenny Rogers song)
| "Lady" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by Kenny Rogers | ||||
| from the album Greatest Hits | ||||
| B-side | "Sweet Music Man" | |||
| Released | September 29, 1980 (U.S.) | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | 1980 | |||
| Genre | Country, Pop | |||
| Length | 3:51 | |||
| Label | Liberty 1380 | |||
| Writer(s) | Lionel Richie | |||
| Producer(s) | Lionel Richie | |||
| Certification | Gold (RIAA) | |||
| Kenny Rogers singles chronology | ||||
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"Lady" is a song written by Lionel Richie and first recorded by American country artist Kenny Rogers. It was released in September 1980 on the album Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits.
It is listed at #47 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.[1]
Contents
Song history
The song was written and produced by Lionel Richie, recorded in 1980, and ranks among Kenny Rogers's biggest hits. Rogers once told an interviewer, "The idea was that Lionel would come from R&B and I'd come from country, and we'd meet somewhere in pop."
The success of "Lady" also boosted Richie's career. The production work on the song was his first outside the Commodores and foreshadowed his success as a solo act during the 1980s. Rogers was also a featured vocalist on "We Are the World", co-written by Richie. Richie performed the song himself on his 1998 album, Time, and he and Rogers performed the song as a duet on Richie's 2012 release "Tuskegee".
Chart success
Since his breakup with the First Edition, Rogers had tasted considerable success as a solo act, with nine No. 1 entries on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart (prior to the release of "Lady"), plus several Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary Singles charts.
"Lady," according to music historian Fred Bronson, would prove to be an important record for both Richie and Rogers. It became the first record of the 1980s to chart on all four of Billboard magazine's singles charts - country, Hot 100, adult contemporary and Top Black Singles.
It reached No. 1 on three of those charts in late 1980, including a six-week run on the Hot 100 and one week on the Hot Country Singles chart. "Lady" also peaked at number forty-two on the Top Black Singles chart.[1]
As a country entry, "Lady" was Rogers' 10th chart-topping hit in a career that saw him collect 20 No. 1 songs between 1977 and 2000. On the Hot 100, it was his only solo chart-topping song, although Rogers would have a duet No. 1 three years later (1983's "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton). On the Adult Contemporary Singles chart, "Lady" was Rogers' second (of eight) songs that reached the chart's summit. Billboard ranked it at the No. 3 song for 1981.[2]
Chart performance
Weekly singles charts
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Year-end charts
End-of-decade charts
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See also
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1981
- ↑ http://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=40275
- ↑ "Ultratop.be – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
- ↑ "Lescharts.com – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}" (in French). Les classement single.
- ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Kenny Rogers search results" (in Dutch) Dutch Top 40.
- ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}". Top 40 Singles.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Kenny Rogers UK Charts history, The Official Charts. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
- ↑ http://50.6.195.142/archives/80s_files/1980YESP.html
- ↑ http://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=40275
- ↑ http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1981.htm
- Allmusic - Lady by Kenny Rogers
- Bronson, Fred, "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits" 5th ed. Billboard Publications, New York, 2003. ISBN 0-8230-7677-6.
- Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006.
- Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2006," 2007.
External links
| Preceded by | Billboard Hot 100 number-one single November 15-December 20, 1980 |
Succeeded by "(Just Like) Starting Over" by John Lennon |
| Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary number-one single November 15-December 6, 1980 |
Succeeded by "Never Be the Same" by Christopher Cross |
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| Preceded by | Billboard Hot Country Singles number-one single November 22, 1980 |
Succeeded by "If You Ever Change Your Mind" by Crystal Gayle |
