Hello (Lionel Richie song)

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Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Hello
  DE 2 04/16/1984 (17 weeks)
  AT 3 06/01/1984 (12 weeks)
  CH 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 04/29/1984 (15 weeks)
  UK 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 03/10/1984 (15 weeks)
  US 1Template: Infobox chart placements / maintenance / NR1 link 02/25/1984 (24 weeks)

Hello is a pop - ballad by Lionel Richie in 1984, which was written by him and produced by James Anthony Carmichael. The single release was Richie's third number one hit in the US as a solo artist.

history

Lionel Richie originally wrote the song for his debut album Lionel Richie . At the insistence of his wife Brenda Richie and production assistant Rita Leigh, Hello was not included on this album, but only on Richie's second album Can't Slow Down , which was released in October 1983. In a report on Channel 4 's Top 100 Hits Number One, Richie revealed that he was inspired by shy men trying to propose marriage to their loved ones when writing the song.

Hello was released worldwide as the third release from the album in February 1984 and became a number one hit in the United States , Canada , Australia , New Zealand , United Kingdom , Ireland , Switzerland , the Netherlands and Belgium .

A few months after publication, Marjorie Hoffmann White filed a lawsuit against Lionel Richie for infringement of copyright . She alleged that Richie had used the melody of her song I'm Not Ready to Go , written back in 1978 , demanded $ 1 million in compensation, the payment of all royalties, and a court order banning Richie from performing the song in public. In 1985, Richie was sued by the songwriter Guy Thompson, claiming that Hello had written by him and that Richie's agent had already received demo recordings from him in the summer of 1980 . Both lawsuits were unsuccessful.

Music video

The corresponding music video was directed by Bob Giraldi, who also directed Running with the Night . In the music video, Richie plays an acting teacher who has fallen in love with a blind art student (played by Laura Carrington, an actress who is not blind). She feels the same for him and expresses this by reshaping his head as a bust. At the end of the video he discovers this. The video won the 1985 American Music Award for Best Music Video. Richie complained to the director of the music video that the bust didn't look like him.

Cover versions

In the film Virgo (40), male, seeks ... and in the episode Stewie Kills Lois from Family Guy you could hear the song.

literature

  • Fred Bronson: The Billboard Book of Number One Hits . Updated and Expanded 5th Edition. Billboard Books, New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-8230-7677-2 , pp. 587 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charts DE Charts AT Charts CH Charts UK Charts US
  2. ↑ release date
  3. ↑ Lionel Richie Hit With $ 1 Million Suit Over Rights To Song 'Hello' . In: Jet . July 23, 1984, p. 13 .
  4. ↑ Songwriter Says Richie Copied His Compositions . In: Billboard Magazine . June 1, 1985, p. 76 .
  5. ^ Lionel Richie's "Hello" is the Most Confusing Music Video of All Time , Dallas Observer, February 14, 2014
  6. ^ Paul Grein: Richie Stars At American Music Awards . In: Billboard Magazine . February 9, 1985, p. 4 .
  7. ^ Rollingstone.com