Lionel Richie | All Night Long (1983)
"All Night Long (All Night)" is a hit single by American singer and songwriter Lionel Richie from 1983. Taken from his second solo album, Can't Slow Down (1983), it combined Richie's soulful Commodores style with Caribbean influences.
1983-08-31 19:00:00 - Lionel Richie
This new, more dance music, pop-inspired approach proved popular, as the single reached number one on three Billboard charts (pop, R&B and adult contemporary). In the UK, it peaked at number two on the singles chart.
The song lyrics were written primarily in English, but Richie has admitted in at least one press interview that "African" lyrics in the song, such as "Tom bo li de say de moi ya" and "Jambo jumbo", were in fact his sui generis dialects.
Richie has described these portions of the song as a "wonderful joke", written when he discovered that he lacked the time to hire a translator to contribute the foreign-language lyrics he wished to include in the song.
Cash Box summed up its review of the single saying "Richie’s command of these diverse musical elements and shifts in melodic direction is as impressive as it is pleasureable."