Tag: Commodores

The director of the classic film The Postman Rings Twice 1981) starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, also directed the music video for Lionel Richie’s “All Night Long (All Night)

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It is the only music video that Bob Rafelson ever directed, although he did direct several episodes of, and was the TV producer for The Monkees between 1966-1968.

The video was produced by ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith.

Richie admitted years later that he had intended to hire a translator for some (what described as) African lyrics but “ran out of time” so he just made up “Tom bo li de say de moi ya,” and “Jambo jumbo,”

Bob Rafelson’s eldest son is songwriter Peter Rafelson, who co-wrote the hit song “Open Your Heart” for Madonna.

Aside from his obvious fame as a member of The Monkees, in 1979 Nesmith pioneered the concept of music video TV shows with his creation PopClips which was developed into MTV.

The lyrics to Commodores’ anthem Brickhouse were literally written in William King’s sleep

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The music for the hit song was born from a jam session lead by bass player Ronald LaPread while on a break in the studio recording the album. Producer, James Carmichael recognised potential in the jam and recorded it and asked the band members to take the riff home to see if they could turn it into song.

While William King slept his wife wrote the lyrics, which are based on the phrase “built like a brick shit house”.

King returned to the studio the next day with the lyrics and allowed everyone to believe they were his.

It took several years before the other members of the group discovered that it was actually Shirley Hanna-King who had written the lyrics, and although she was not originally credited, the band has publicly acknowledged her as the song’s writer.

Commodores’ drummer Walter “Clyde” Orange sings the song, having the requisite huskiness of voice that neither King nor Richie possessed.

The Commodores’ hit “Three Times A Lady” was written with Frank Sinatra in mind as the performer.

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Richie did not believe that a waltz would fit The Commodores’ musical style, so he wrote it imagining that it would be sung by Frank Sinatra.

Lionel Richie as inspired to write the song from a toss this the HD made to his mother at their 37th wedding anniversary saying “She’s a great lady, she’s a great mother, and she’s a great friend.”

As the band prepared to record the album Natural High, group members presented various songs that they had written. Richie played “Three Times a Lady” for producer James Carmichael, with the warning that he intended to pitch the song to Sinatra. Carmichael insisted that the song be added to The Commodores’ album.

1975: American singer and actor Frank Sinatra (1915 – 1998) in concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London. (Photo by Joe Bangay/Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Commodores were almost named The Commodes

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Commodores originally came together from two former student groups, the Mystics and The Jays.

Lionel Richie, Thomas McClary, and William King from the Mystics; Andre Callahan, Michael Gilbert, and Milan Williams were from the Jays. They wanted to change the name. To choose a new name, William King opened a dictionary and randomly picked a word. “We lucked out,” he remarked with a laugh when telling this story to People magazine. “We almost became ‘The Commodes.'”