Editing Lionel Richie (section)

===Solo career===
[[File:Lionel Richie 1984.jpg|thumb|upright|Richie in 1984]]
Richie's 1982 debut solo album, ''[[Lionel Richie (album)|Lionel Richie]]'', contained three hit singles: the U.S. number-one song "[[Truly (Lionel Richie song)|Truly]]", which continued the style of his ballads with the Commodores and launched his career as one of the most successful balladeers of the 1980s, and the top five hits "[[You Are (Lionel Richie song)|You Are]]" and "[[My Love (Lionel Richie song)|My Love]]". The album hit No. 3 on the music charts and sold over 4 million copies.

His 1983 follow-up album, ''[[Can't Slow Down (Lionel Richie album)|Can't Slow Down]]'', sold over twice as many copies and won two [[Grammy Awards]], including [[Grammy Award for Album of the Year|Album of the Year]], propelling him into the first rank of international superstars. The album contained the number-one hit "[[All Night Long (All Night)|All Night Long]]", a Caribbean-flavored dance number that was promoted by a colorful music video produced by former [[The Monkees|Monkee]] [[Michael Nesmith]]. In 1984, he performed "All Night Long" at the ending ceremony of the [[1984 Summer Olympics|XXIII Olympic Games]] in Los Angeles.

Several more Top 10 hits followed, the most successful of which was the ballad "[[Hello (Lionel Richie song)|Hello]]" (1984), a sentimental love song that showed how far he had moved from his R&B roots. Richie had three more top ten hits in 1984, "[[Stuck on You (Lionel Richie song)|Stuck on You]]" (No. 3), "[[Running with the Night]]" (No. 7) and "[[Penny Lover]]" (No. 8), as well as writing and producing "Missing You" for former labelmate and duet partner Diana Ross (No. 10 Pop, No. 1 R&B). In 1985, he wrote and performed "[[Say You, Say Me]]" for the film ''[[White Nights (1985 film)|White Nights]]''. The song won an [[Academy Award]] and reached No. 1 on the U.S. charts, staying there for four weeks, making it the number-two song of 1986 according to ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''{{'}}s Year-End Hot 100 chart, behind the charity single "[[That's What Friends Are For]]" by [[Dionne Warwick|Dionne]] and Friends. He also collaborated with [[Michael Jackson]] on the charity single "[[We Are the World]]" by [[USA for Africa]], another number-one hit.

In 1986, Richie released ''[[Dancing on the Ceiling]]'', his last widely popular album, which produced a run of five US and UK hits, "[[Say You, Say Me]]" (U.S. No. 1), "[[Dancing on the Ceiling (Lionel Richie song)|Dancing on the Ceiling]]" (U.S. No. 2), "[[Love Will Conquer All]]" (U.S. No. 9), "[[Ballerina Girl]]" (U.S. No. 7), and "[[Se La]]" (U.S. No. 20). He made his return to recording and performing following the release of his first greatest-hits collection, ''[[Back to Front (Lionel Richie album)|Back to Front]]'', in 1992.

Since then, his ever-more-relaxed schedule has kept his recording and live work to a minimum. He broke the silence in 1996 with ''[[Louder Than Words (album)|Louder Than Words]]'', on which he resisted any change of style or the musical fashion-hopping of the past decade, sticking instead with his chosen path of well-crafted [[soul music]], which in the intervening years has become known as [[contemporary R&B]].

Richie's albums in the late 1990s such as ''[[Louder Than Words (album)|Louder Than Words]]'' and ''[[Time (Lionel Richie album)|Time]]'' failed to match the commercial success of his earlier work. Some of his recent albums, such as ''[[Renaissance (Lionel Richie album)|Renaissance]]'' and ''[[Just for You (Lionel Richie album)|Just for You]]'', have returned to his older style and achieved success in Europe but only modest notice in the United States.