Maybe Richie shouldnвЂ™t have gotten away with that fake accent or those fake chants. Instead of trying to honestly engage the traditions that he pulled from, Richie just lazily gestured at them. That means вЂњAll Night Long (All Night)вЂќ is straight-up cultural appropriation. Upon learning that the people of Africa spoke thousands of different dialects and that it would take weeks to come up with a workable translation for what he wanted to say, Richie just made up some words. When Richie was writing вЂњAll Night Long,вЂќ he called a friend at the UN to ask for some вЂњAfricanвЂќ phrases. Richie just made up his fake African chant out of thin air. (вЂњWanna Be StartinвЂ™ Somethin'вЂќ is a 10.) But Jackson had taken those chants from somewhere - specifically, from вЂњSoul Makossa,вЂќ the 1972 single from the Cameroonian bandleader Manu Dibango. Michael Jackson, RichieвЂ™s eventual collaborator, had used fake African chanting on вЂњ Wanna Be StartinвЂ™ SomethinвЂ™,вЂќ a single that had peaked at #5 earlier in 1983. And then thereвЂ™s the songвЂ™s bridge, with the fake African chanting. вЂњFiestaвЂќ: Spanish for вЂњparty.вЂќ вЂњKaramuвЂќ: Swahili for вЂњpartyвЂќ (or really вЂњbanquetвЂќ). On вЂњAll Night Long,вЂќ Richie pulls stray bits and phrases from other languages. HeвЂ™s terrible at it, which somehow makes the whole enterprise that much more charming. вЂњAll Night LongвЂќ isnвЂ™t a reggae song, but Richie still goes all-in on that accent.

But on a song like BlondieвЂ™s вЂњ The Tide Is High,вЂќ the most directly reggae-influenced song that had hit #1 in America at that point, Debbie Harry was still using her own voice. Before Richie, plenty of artists had toyed around with reggae and scored huge American hits. Three years before Drake was born, Lionel Richie brought the fake Jamaican accent to the top of the American charts. Richie was smart enough to see that American pop music had become a universal global language, and he steered right into that, making the kind of thing that would sound inoffensively playful anywhere on the planet. вЂњAll Night Long (All Night),вЂќ the first single from RichieвЂ™s CanвЂ™t Slow Down album, is a conscious and successful effort to make an international jam. In 1983, while working on his second solo album, Richie wanted to make the kind of song that people could dance to while on vacation. He probably couldвЂ™ve kept making those ballads forever.Д«ut Richie had other territory to explore. Richie had gotten his start playing party-funk in the Commodores, but ballads were what made Richie rich. You could be forgiven for thinking that all of them were the same gooily sincere love-ballad, even when Richie wasnвЂ™t the one singing. All of them were gooily sincere love ballads. In The Number Ones, IвЂ™m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chartвЂ™s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.Д«etween 19, Lionel Richie wrote six different #1 singles.

Lionel richie all night long