Lady (Kenny Rogers song)

"Lady"
Single by Kenny Rogers
from the album Greatest Hits
B-side	"Sweet Music Man"
Released	September 29, 1980 (U.S.)
Format	7"
Recorded	1980
Genre	Country, Pop
Length	3:51
Label	Liberty 1380
Writer(s)	Lionel Richie
Producer(s)	Lionel Richie
Certification	Gold (RIAA)
Kenny Rogers singles chronology
"Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" (with Kim Carnes) (1980) "Lady" (1980) "What Are We Doin' in Love" (with Dottie West) (1981)

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

It is listed at #47 on Billboard's All Time Top 100.

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 the song himself on his 1998 album, Time, and he and Rogers performed the song as a duet on Richie's 2012 release "Tuskegee".

Chart success

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 Black Singles.

It reached No. 1 on three of those charts in late 1980, including a six-week run on the Hot 100 and one week on the Hot Country Singles chart. "Lady" also peaked at number forty-two on the Top Black Singles chart.^[1]

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.^[2]

Chart performance

Weekly singles charts Chart (1980-81) Peak position Australia KMR [3] 15 Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[4] 17 Canadian RPM Country Tracks 2 Canadian RPM Top Singles 2 Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary Tracks 6 France (SNEP)[5] 11 Ireland (IRMA) 12 Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[6] 16 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[7] 6 Spain (AFYVE)[8] 19 UK Singles (The Official Charts Company)[9] 12 U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles 1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 1 U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 1

Year-end charts Chart (1980) Rank U.S. Cash Box [10] 6 Chart (1981) Rank Australia [11] 93 Canada 43 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [12] 3 End-of-decade charts End of decade (1980–89) Position U.S. Billboard Hot 100 10

See also

• List of Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles of 1980

References

1. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 499.
2. Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1981
3. http://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=40275
4. "Ultratop.be – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
5. "Lescharts.com – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}" (in French). Les classement single.
6. "Nederlandse Top 40 – Kenny Rogers search results" (in Dutch) Dutch Top 40.
7. "Charts.org.nz – Kenny Rogers – {{{song}}}". Top 40 Singles.
8. Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959–2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
9. Kenny Rogers UK Charts history, The Official Charts. Retrieved September 10, 2011.
10. http://50.6.195.142/archives/80s_files/1980YESP.html
11. http://australian-charts.com/forum.asp?todo=viewthread&id=40275
12. http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1981.htm

• Allmusic - Lady by Kenny Rogers
• 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.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics