Lady (Kenny Rogers song)

"Lady" is a song written by Lionel Richie and first recorded by American country music artist Kenny Rogers. It was released in September 1980 on the album Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits.

"Lady"
Single by Kenny Rogers
from the album Greatest Hits
B-side"Sweet Music Man"
ReleasedSeptember 29, 1980 (U.S.)
Recorded1980
GenrePop
Length3:54
LabelLiberty 1380
Songwriter(s)Lionel Richie
Producer(s)Lionel Richie
Kenny Rogers singles chronology
"Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer"
(1980)		 "Lady"
(1980)		 "What Are We Doin' in Love"
(1981)

It is listed at #60 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.[1]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Billboard(unrated)[2]

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 "Lady" himself on his 1998 album, Time, 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 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 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" by John Lennon. On the Hot Country Singles chart, it would spend a week at the summit. "Lady" also peaked at number forty-two on the Top Soul Singles chart.[3]

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.

All-time charts
Chart (1958-2018) Position
US Billboard Hot 100[20] 60
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See also
  • List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1980

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-12-29. Retrieved 2018-08-01.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Review: Kenny Rogers – Lady" (PDF). Billboard. 85 (40). 4 October 1980. p. 110. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved 30 May 2020 – via American Radio History.
  3. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 499.
  4. Steffen Hung. "Forum - Top 100 End of Year AMR Charts - 1980s (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)". Australian-charts.com. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
  5. "Ultratop.be – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  6. "Lescharts.com – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}" (in French). Les classement single.
  7. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Kenny Rogers" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  8. "Charts.nz – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}". Top 40 Singles.
  9. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 5 September 2018.
  10. Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  11. Kenny Rogers UK Charts history Archived 2011-12-24 at the Wayback Machine, The Official Charts. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
  12. "Kenny Rogers Chart History (Hot Country Songs)". Billboard.
  13. "Kenny Rogers Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
  14. "Kenny Rogers Chart History (Adult Contemporary)". Billboard.
  16. "Top 100 Year End Charts: 1980". Cashbox Magazine. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  17. The 1981 Top 100 Singles chart is identified by the RPM Year-End article "Top 100 Singles (1981)". RPM. Retrieved 2018-01-05.
  18. "Top 20 Hit Singles of 1981". Retrieved 26 December 2018.
  19. "Top 100 Hits of 1981/Top 100 Songs of 1981". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
  20. "Billboard Hot 100 60th Anniversary Interactive Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 10 December 2018.

Bibliography
  • 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.
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