I knew that I had mentioned the great 80s soul crooner Lionel Richie in a past article on KKP years ago but not given him that Reminiscings of Youth attention for that particular song (at least, not yet anyways), but it was still a surprise to realize that after a few years of regular ROY articles as this is, Richie still hadn't made his debut here. Well, that ends right here and now.
Of course, for all those Richie fans, there is "All Night Long", "Running with the Night" and "Dancing on the Ceiling" as those huge hits for the singer from Alabama. However for me, there was one single that came out in September 1986 that perhaps didn't become a classic like the ones above, but it still hits me as one of my favourites. I first heard "Love Will Conquer All" on the radio ranking shows on the Toronto stations as a university student and it has stuck with me ever since. It's got the Quiet Storm vibe along with the feeling that this is a content soulful stroll as illustrated by Richie and his co-vocalist Marva King.
Created by Greg Phillinganes, Cynthia Weil, and Richie, "Love Will Conquer All" just has those amazing keyboards and whenever I hear those "Ooooohs" in the intro by the singer and King, I know that I'm going to be in a world of aural good. I always waited in anticipation for those "Ooooohs" on the ranking shows and then once I really started to appreciate this song, I always wanted to hear the longer version at 6 to 7 minutes. Several years would pass until I realized that there was a music video for "Love Will Conquer All" in which Richie drove hundreds of miles up California to make amends with his girlfriend. It certainly looked like love conquered all although maybe distance may have also conquered the car tires.
All joking aside, it still remains one of my favourite R&B tunes from the 1980s. Plus, "Love Will Conquer All" didn't do too shabbily on the rankings either since it hit No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the States while it reached No. 19 here in Canada. The song was also a track on "Dancing on the Ceiling" the album. And so what was also doing well on the Oricon charts when this song was released? I have Nos. 1, 3 and 5.
1. Akemi Ishii -- Cha-Cha-Cha
3. Miho Nakayama -- Tsuiteru ne, Notteru ne（ツイてるねノッてるね）
5. Momoko Kikuchi -- Say Yes!
Cindy had an interview with Lionel Richie according the Japanese Wikipedia. Any way to find it?
ReplyDeleteI went bonkers on this post trying to find it
https://www.reddit.com/r/citypop/comments/yfcvcy/looking_for_the_interview_of_lionel_richie_by/
Hello there. Yeah, I saw the comment about it (via "Myojo" magazine) on her J-Wiki file and also that Reddit topic. I tried to check it out via Yahoo.jp but nothing came up, and I'm interested in which magazines or newspapers Cindy had worked for or whether she was a freelancer.
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