Beech Tree News Network

Even when playing composer George Gershwin’s piano in Washington’s Library of Congress, for Lionel Ritchie, performing comes naturally.  Recently, Richie was awarded the library’s Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.  “I keep thinking of Tuskegee, Alabama.  That’s where it started”, he says.  Born in Tuskegee in 1949, Ritchie has been a worldwide superstar for some 50 years.  First, as one of the Commodores.  Then, as a solo artist.  Now, as a judge on American Idol.  

Still, Lionel Brockman Ritchie, Jr. says his worldview was born on the campus of Tuskegee University.  His parents, Lionel, Sr, a U.S. Army systems analyst, and Alberta Foster, a teacher.  Growing up in the ‘50’s, Ritchie said the campus was his protective bubble.  “We thought it was a normal thing: black doctors, lawyers, etc.  That was because of segregation.  There was nowhere else for them to go where black people could survive”.

When he went to his parents to say he was joining the Commodores, his parents weren’t exactly overjoyed.  He and the Commodores quickly started touring and, in 1971, joined Motown Records and began opening for the Jackson 5, led by the late Michael Jackson.  “Michael said “Oh my God, Lionel, we sold out Madison Square Garden.  Lionel said “no, YOU sold out Madison Square Garden”.

The Commodores’ breakthrough hit was “Three Times a Lady.  “The big thing then was funk and I go and write a waltz”, he said.  In 1982, he went solo.  The next year, he won a Grammy for his album Can’t Slow Down.  The competition that year? Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A, Prince’s Purple Rain, Tina Turner’s Private Dancer and Cyndi Lauper’s She’s So Unusual.  

The hits from the album included “Stuck On You”, “Hello”, and “All Night Long”.  At the height of his success, he took a break.  His dad said, “I’m not feeling well”. Lionel Ritchie, Sr died in 1990 with his son by his side.  “I became so nostalgic.  I was famous but I missed Christmases”. 

It’s been 13 years since Ritchie’s last album, though he says that wait will soon come to an end.  “Overall, the journey of Lionel Ritchie, if I may speak of myself in third person, is an amazing ride”.  Amazing indeed.  (CBS Sunday Morning, story by Kelefa Sanneh)