"Lady" is a song written by

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recor ...

and first recorded by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

artist

Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted mo ...

. It was released in September 1980 on the album '' Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits.'' It is listed at #60 on ''Billboard's All Time Top 100.''

Song history

The song was written and produced by

, recorded in 1980, and ranks among Kenny Rogers's biggest hits. Rogers once told an interviewer, The success of "Lady" also boosted Richie's career. The production work on the song was his first outside the

Commodores Commodores are an American funk and soul band, which were at their peak in the late 1970s through the mid 1980s. The members of the group met as mostly freshmen at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in 1968, and signed with Motown in ...

and foreshadowed his success as a solo act during the 1980s. Rogers was also a featured vocalist on "

We Are the World "We Are the World" is a charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album '' We Are the World''. Wi ...

", co-written by Richie. Richie performed "Lady" himself on his 1998 album, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'', and he and Rogers performed the song as a duet on Richie's 2012 release '' Tuskegee''. Lionel Richie had originally pitched this song to the Commodores and they turned it down. Then later, it was given to Kenny Rogers to record and it became the biggest selling hit single for him as a solo artist.

Charts

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 ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the musi ...

Hot Country Singles Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...

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 Soul Singles. It reached No. 1 on three of those charts in late 1980. On the Hot 100, "Lady" reached the summit on 15 November and stayed at the top for a massive six-week stint (tying with Blondie's " Call Me" for the longest run of the year). On 27 December it would be knocked out of the top spot by "

(Just Like) Starting Over "(Just Like) Starting Over" is a song written and performed by John Lennon from the 1980 album, ''Double Fantasy''. It was released as a single on 24 October 1980 in the United Kingdom, with Yoko Ono's " Kiss Kiss Kiss" as the B-side. It reache ...

" by

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

. On the Hot Country Singles chart, it would spend a week at the summit. "Lady" also peaked at number 42 on the Top Soul Singles chart. 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 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

's " Islands in the Stream" with

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album ...

). 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.

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

End-of-decade charts

All-time charts

References

Bibliography

*Bronson, Fred, "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits" 5th ed. Billboard Publications, New York, 2003. . *Whitburn, Joel, "Top Country Songs: 1944-2005," 2006. *Whitburn, Joel, "Top Pop Singles: 1955-2006," 2007.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lady (Kenny Rogers Song) 1980 singles Kenny Rogers songs Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Cashbox number-one singles Songs written by Lionel Richie Liberty Records singles Pop ballads 1980 songs 1980s ballads