The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*: #110-101

We hope you have enjoyed our presentation of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era* to this point.  The next 10 songs you are about to hear were ever so close to being in the all-time Top 100*!

#110: 

 
Waterfalls

 TLC 
1995

 

 

 

 

"Music that speaks to your heart."

 

"My favorite song."

 

"This song rocks..."

 

"This song is so inspiring to many people."

 

"Fantastic!"

 

"What a classic!"

 

"Wonderful song!"

 

"Great message by a great group."

 

 

 

 

In 1990, producer Ian Burke and Crystal Jones envisioned a girl hip-hop group in Atlanta, Georgia, and began looking for women to join Jones.  Tionne Watkins and Lisa Lopes answered the call, and the group, originally known as 2nd Nature, began working with producers Jermaine Dupri and Rico Wade on demo tapes. 

 

Singer Perri "Pebbles" Reid had just started her own management and production company when the group auditioned for her.  Reid re-named the group TLC-Skee, with "TLC' being an acronym for the women's first names.  Reid was impressed, and passed them on to LaFace Records, run by Babyface Edmonds and Reid's husband, Antonio "L.A." Reid. 

 

L.A. Reid liked what he heard from Watkins and Lopes, but wanted Jones to be replaced.  Those two signed a contract on February 28, 1991 with Perri as their general manager.  While looking for a replacement for Jones, Watkins and Lopes appeared on Jermaine Jackson's album You Said, as well as on a song on Damian Dame's self-titled album. 

 

Pebbles found the third member of the group in Rozonda Thomas, and she was signed in April, about the time the trio shortened their name to TLC.  To keep TLC as being an applicable acronym, Watkins became known as "T-Boz", Lopes was "Left-Eye", and Thomas was named "Chilli", and the girls were sent into the studio to work on their debut album. 

 

Ooooooohhh...On the TLC Tip was hugely successful, selling over four million copies and producing the Top 10 hits "Baby-Baby-Baby" and "Ain't 2 (sic) Proud 2 (sic) Beg".  In late 1993, TLC began working on their second album.  CrazySexyCool produced four Top 5 smashes--we have already heard "Creep" in The Top 500* at #415*. 

 

Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC co-wrote this amazing song with Marqueze Etheridge and Organized Noize.  It deals with illegal drug trade, promiscuity, and HIV/AIDS

The group recorded the song in 1994 at D.A.R.P Studios, Doppler Recording Studios and Bosstown Recording Studios, all in Atlanta, Georgia.  TLC released the single May 23, 1995 in the U.S. and later in the summer (August 5) in the U.K.

"Waterfalls" began climbing up the charts in June of 1995, when Rock Era fans could also hear "One Sweet Day" from Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men, Carey's "Fantasy", "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal, "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio, "Take A Bow" by Madonna, and TCL's own "Creep".

"Waterfalls" accumulated 7 weeks at Top 10 and 18 in the Top 10.  It reached #4 on the R&B chart and #24 on the Adult Contemporary chart.  The song also zoomed to #1 in New Zealand and Switzerland, #2 in Norway, #4 in the U.K., Australia, and Ireland, #5 in Germany and the Netherlands, and #7 in Sweden.

 

The song has sold over one million singles, and helped CrazySexyCool sell over 11 million albums in the U.S. and over 15 million worldwide.  The album was one of the first to receive the Diamond award, given to albums certified as having sold over 10 million albums.  "Waterfalls" has been played over one million times--not bad for a fairly recent song, but of course nowhere near some of the other songs in this range.  We suspect that if the airplay numbers continue to rise, so will this song in the Top 500* ranking. 

TLC won the Grammy Award for Best R & B Album, and the video captured MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Best R&B Video and the Viewer's Choice Award.  The song was nominated for the prestigious Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards, as well as Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#109:

A Horse With No Name

 America 
1972

 

 

"This great classic--every time I listen to it, it puts my mind in a trance and sends me off on a voyage somewhere peaceful."

 

"Fabulous song!"

 

"Excellent!"

 

"What an amazing song."

 

"One of the classics."

 

"My favorite song of all-time."

 

"I love this song!"

 

"Perfect song!"

 

 

 



 

This supergroup formed when the sons of U.S. servicemen stationed in England met in Central High School in London. The three had all played in various bands before forming a five-piece group called the Daze.  

 

After graduation, the other two members of Daze left, and lead singer Dewey Bunnell, bassist Gerry Beckley, and guitarist Dan Peek decided to stick together as an acoustic trio.  The three began writing their own songs, and eventually auditioned for Jeff Bexter, the promoter who ran the popular London club the Roundhouse.  Soon, America was the opening act for headliners at the venue, including Pink Floyd.   

 

The music business is all about connections, and it happened that Dexter's friend, Ian Samwell, was a producer at Warner Brothers Records in London.  America signed a recording contract with Warner Brothers, and began recording their first album.  At the time, they were well known around London, but virtual unknowns in the United States.

 

Bunnell wrote this song, based on images he saw in Arizona and New Mexico while his father was stationed at a base in the United States.   Bunnell also says he got inspiration from a Salvador Dali painting at the studio and the strange horse that had ridden out of a picture by M.C. Escher.  "A Horse With No Name" was originally called "Desert Song".

America recorded the song at Trident Studios in London for their self-titled debut album, with Ray Cooper playing percussion; the group relocated to the United States after this became a smash hit.

 

In February of 1972, one could tune in the radio and hear "A Horse With No Name" along with other current hits such as "American Pie" by Don McLean, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven", "Without You" by Nilsson, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack, "Lean On Me" from Bill Withers, Neil Young's "Heart Of Gold", "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green, "Song Sung Blue" from Neil Diamond, and "Family Affair" by Sly & the Family Stone.

"A Horse With No Name" roared to #1 for 3 weeks and spent an impressive 10 weeks in the Top 10.  It also galloped to #1 in Canada and Finland, #3 in the U.K., and #4 in Ireland.

 

The song has sold one million singles and helped sell two million albums.  It has slipped outside of The Top 100* because of those stagnating sales.  To its credit, however, the song has been played over four million times.

#108:

How You Remind Me
 Nickelback 
2001

 



"I Luv this song!"

 

"Fantastic!"

 

"Epic song!"

 

"This song is awesome."

 

"This song gets me pumped!"

 

"One of the best songs ever."

 

"This song is amazing."

 

"My all-time favorite song."

 

 

This great rock group formed in Hanna, Alberta, Canada in 1995 as a cover band.  Guitarist and lead singer Chad Kroeger asked his step-father for $4,000 to record a demo, which turned out to be the EP Hesher.   

 

A&R man Ron Burman of Roadrunner Records had received Hesher and travelled to Vancouver, British Columbia to see the group live.  The venue was packed and Burman said, "I immediately got the chills!"  Burman was instrumental in getting Nickelback a recording contract with Roadrunner, which they signed in 1999.

 

Nickelback released the album The State in 2000, which contained two Top 10 rock hits--"Leader Of Men" and "Breathe".  The following year, Nickelback set out to release their follow-up album, Silver Side Up.

 

Kroeger wrote this song and brought it to the attention of the members of Nickelback before recording the album Silver Side Up at Greenhouse Studios in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.  The band finished the song in about 10 minutes and immediately knew they had recorded something special.

"How You Remind Me" debuted on the charts in September of 2001.  "Fallin'" by Alicia Keys was the only Top 500 Song* out at the time, so Nickelback faced some of the easiest competition of the Rock Era.   

"How You Remind Me" spent 4 weeks at #1, with 9 weeks at #2.  It racked up 22 weeks in the Top 10, and was on the best-seller list for an incredible 51 weeks.  On the Top 40, it was lodged at #2 for an amazing 17 weeks, was #1 for 12 weeks on the Modern Rock chart, and #1 for 13 weeks on the Mainstream Rock chart.  It also reached #1 in Canada,  Austria, and Denmark, Ireland,  #2 in Australia, #3 in Germany and Switzerland, #4 in the U.K., New Zealand and Norway, and Sweden, and #7 in the Netherlands. 

"How You Remind Me" has sold 500,000 singles, and has already helped sell seven million albums, including six million for Silver Side Up.  It won a BMI Award for Pop Song of the Year and Billboard Awards for Hot 100 Single of the Year, Hot 100 Airplay Single, Top 40 Track and Hot 100 Singles Group/Duo.

"How You Remind Me" is an important song in that it was the last rock & roll to reach #1 until Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" in 2008.  The funny thing is that in between, all of the rap and hip-hop songs that a few people are obsessed with are nowhere to be found anywhere near the Top 500*, while the last rock song before 2008 to top the charts is all the way up at #108*.  The reasons are that "How You Remind Me" continues to get strong airplay and sales to this day, while the temporary flashes in the pan from rap and hip-hop are long forgotten.  It's a lesson that should cause record executives to sit up and take notice.  But we doubt that they will.

"How You Remind Me" was the most-played song of 2002, and was named by Nielsen as the most-played song so far this century with over 1.2 million airplays.

Kroegers wife, Avril Lavigne, covered the song in 2012.

 

#107:

Venus

Shocking Blue
1970

 

"An epic classic for sure."

 

"This song is timeless."

 

"Love this song...classic."

 

"Terrific!"

"Pure magic!"

"Shockingly amazing!"

"Perfect!!!"

"Amazing and mesmerizing."

 

 

 

 

 Robbie van Leeuwen of the Dutch group Shocking Blue wrote this song, which his group took to #1 in nine countries.

 

Van Leeuwen was inspired to write "Venus" by "The Banjo Song" by Tim Rose, which set Stephen Collins Foster's lyrics to "Oh!  Susanna" to a completely different melody. 

 

Van Leeuwen, however, had a problem translating the song to English.  Robbie accidentally included a typographical error into his lyrics when the first line of the song was supposed to read "A goddess on the mountain top".  Van Leeuwen wrote "A goddness on the mountain top" , and that is how lead singer Mariska Veres sang the song. 

 

Listeners didn't seem to mind, and the result was a #1 song with a misspoken line due to a typo.   Jerry Ross produced the song; Ross also produced another Dutch group, Tee Set, on their song "Ma Belle Amie".  The Shocking Blue  released the single in late 1969 from their album At Home. 

 

 "Venus" hit the airwaves in December, 1969, an outstanding time in music that also included "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel, "Let It Be", "Something", and "Come Together" by the Beatles, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head" by B.J. Thomas, Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds", "Sugar, Sugar" from the Archies, "Someday We'll Be Together" by Diana Ross & the Supremes, "Wedding Bell Blues" from the 5th Dimension, "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" by Steam, "Down On The Corner" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and "ABC" from the Jackson 5.

 

"Venus" battled those incredible songs and still got to #1 with an impressive 9 weeks in the Top 10.  It also hit #1 in Canada, France and Australia, #2 in Germany and Austria, #3 in the Netherlands, #8 in the U.K. and Finland, and #10 in Ireland. 

 

In 1986, the song then became one of a select few in the Rock Era to reach #1 by two different artists when Bananarama hit #1 with their remake.

 

The Shocking Blue's version sold over 7.5 million copies worldwide, including over 1 million in the U.S.; it has been played over two million times. 

 

 

 

#106:

Ticket To Ride
Beatles
1965

"Massive tune."

 

"Awesome!"

 

"The opening guitar riff is pure magic!"

"No matter what mood I'm in, this will get me feeling good.   Miraculous, Johnny, purely miraculous..."

"Magnificent song!"

"This song is timeless."

"Gorgeous music..."

"I always burst out singing this--it's awesome!"

 

 

 

 

Eighteen songs from 1965 made the grade in The Top 500 Songs*, including Song #106*.

The Beatles exploded onto the worldwide scene in 1964, enjoying an unprecedented six #1 songs.  People throughout the music world (fans, the media, record executives, as well as nervous parents) wondered what the group would do in 1965.  They soon found out--the Beatles weren't going anywhere.

Although Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote this song about a girl riding out of the life of the narrator, they were aware of the potential for a double meaning.  A "ticket to ride" could also mean a ticket on British Railways to the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.  Paul's cousin ran a bar in Ryde and Paul and John had visited him there.  

This was the first Beatles' song over three minutes, which began a trend towards longer songs.  The Beatles recorded it February 15, 1965 at EMI Studios in London, and it was released in April.

"Ticket To Ride" could be heard at the same time as great songs such as "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles' own "Eight Days A Week", "I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops, "Help Me Rhonda" by the Beach Boys, "Stop!  In The Name Of Love" by the Supremes, and "Crying In The Chapel" by Elvis Presley.  Competition, as good as the above songs are, was not as strong as others in this range, so "Ticket To Ride" had to go the extra mile to earn its ranking at Position #106*.

"Ticket To Ride" was the third of six consecutive #1 singles, which is not the same as six consecutive #1 songs.  The streak was broken when B-sides that also charted failed to hit #1.  It also flew to #1 in the U.K. for three weeks and was #1 in Canada, the Netherlands, and Norway, #2 in West Germany (East Germany didn't "allow" rock & roll), and #8 in Austria. 

Three weeks after "Ticket To Ride" hit #1, it was announced that the Beatles would receive MBE's (Members of the Order of the British Empire).

"Ticket To Ride" sold over 1 million singles and helped sell 40 million albums.  To date, it has logged three million radio airplays.  The Beatles won a Grammy Award For Best New Artist Of 1964, a Billboard Award for Album of the Year (for the album "1" in 2001) and World Music Awards for Diamond Award and World's Best-Selling Pop Rock Artist/Group.

 

#105:

Best Of My Love
 Eagles
1975

 

 

"The Eagles were poets. This music was straight from the heart, pure emotion flowing through your entire body whenever you hear it."

 

"Beautiful song."

 

"I have always loved this song."

 

"Great song!"

 

"Awesome!!!!"

 

"Excellent song."

 

"These guys wrote some of the best lyrics ever put on paper."

 

"A classic..."

 

 

In 1971, John Boylan, manager of Linda Ronstadt, hired Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner for an upcoming tour, but still needed a drummer.  Frey then recalled someone he had met at the Troubadour in Los Angeles.  He phoned Don Henley.  "I was broke and here was a chance for $200 a week,", Henley told Robert Hlburn of The Los Angeles Times.

 

While working on the tour, Frey and Henley formed their own group with Leadon and Meisner, with Ronstadt's blessing.  The Eagles' self-titled album was a big success, and Desperado built on that success.  However, halfway through recording the album On the Border, the group called veteran producer Bill Szymczyk and asked him to replace Glynn Johns.  Johns kept trying to get the Eagles to record their lush, melodic side while ignoring their harder edge.  As the Eagles told Szymczyk, they wanted to rock.

 

To add that harder edge, Szymczyk invited Don Felder to play slide guitar on one of the tracks.  He was so good, that two days later, Felder became the fifth member of the Eagles.
 

J.D. Souther helped write this song along with Frey and Henley.  Souther also later helped the group write "New Kid In Town", "Victim Of Love" and "Heartache Tonight", and scored his own solo hit with 'You're Only Lonely".

The Eagles recorded the song at Olympic Sound Studios in London for their album On the Border.  Leadon played steel guitar on the song.  The Eagles released the single November 5, 1974.

"Best Of My Love" was out the same time as "Philadelphia Freedom" by Elton John, "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow" by Olivia Newton-John, "Cat's In The Cradle" from Harry Chapin, "You're No Good" by Linda Ronstadt, "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers, and "My Eyes Adored You" by Frankie Valli. 

"Best Of My Love" reached #1 on both the Popular and Adult Contemporary charts.  To date, it has helped sell over 37 million albums in the United States alone, and has chalked up over 4 million in radio airplay. 

#104:

You Light Up My Life
Debby Boone 
1977

"Awesome--I love it." 

"Beautiful song.

 

"All-time classic."

"So touching."

"It's great."

"Best song ever!"

"One of the greatest love songs of all-time."

"Sooo...beautiful!"

 

 

This artist is the daughter of Pat Boone, a star in the 1950s.  Before long, Debby and her sisters formed a group and signed with Motown Records.  They were unsuccessful there and moved to Curb Records, a division of Warner Brothers, but their luck didn't change.

 

However, Mike Curb, owner of the company, kept watch for a song that Debby might do as a solo artist.  He went to see the movie You Light Up My Life, starring Didi Conn.  Conn lip-synched the title song in the movie, which was recorded by Kacey Cisyk.  Curb borrowed the instrumental track from writer Joe Brooks and Debby recorded her vocal with the track.

 

Brooks was midway through making a movie in 1977 when he, also being a songwriter, decided to sit down and write the title song.  Brooks had Cisyk record the song to me used in the movie.  But for over a year, no studio would agree to release the film and no record company release the song.  Finally, the movie debuted in theatres, and when it came time to record the song as a single, Brooks turned to Debby Boone.

As Boone's version was not included on the soundtrack, Cisyk's song was released as a single to boost sales of the album.  However, her version stalled at #80, while Boone's went to #1 for 10 weeks.  The song posted 13 weeks in the Top 10, meaning the song soared to #1, then dropped pretty quickly after being replaced at the top.  "You Light Up My Life" also reached #1 on the Adult chart and #4 on the Country chart in the U.S., and landed at #1 in Canada and #7 in Australia.

"You Light Up My Life" faced major competition in the form of "How Deep Is Your Love", "Stayin' Alive" and Night Fever" by the Bee Gees, "Don't Stop" and "You Make Loving Fun" from Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are", "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" by Andy Gibb, "We Are The Champions" from Queen, "If I Can't Have You" by Yvonne Elliman, Linda Ronstadt's "Blue Bayou", "Sometimes When We Touch" from Dan Hill, "Baby Come Back" by Player, and Eric Clapton's "Lay Down Sally". 
 

Boone won Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Song of the Year,  and "You Light Up My Life" won both an Academy Award for Best Original Song and Golden Globe for Best Original Song--Motion Picture.  The song was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female at the Grammy Awards.

"You Light Up My Life" sold two million singles and helped sell two million albums.  However, both sales and airplay have tapered off significantly since 1977, causing the song to drop out of The Top 100*. 

 

#103:

A Hard Day's Night

 Beatles

1964

 

"Really is awesome."

"Great music."

"Still the best after all these years."

"I love this song!"

"Ah, an absolute classic!"

"One of the best songs ever."

"Perfect!"

"Incredible talent.  They are irreplaceable."

 

As we get close to The Top 100*, you will witness a phenomenon if you've never heard The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era* before.  What you will see is that it seems like every other song is either by the Beatles or Elvis Presley, and that is normal for any professional ranking.  It isn't just by coincidence--one would assume that two of the greatest artists of the Rock Era became great because they recorded a lot of great songs, and this is born out by The Top 500*.  Other artists had great songs too, but you will be struck by just how many great songs both the Beatles and Elvis had.

The title for this classic came from an expression that drummer Ringo Starr used to say.  In an interview with disc jockey Dave Hull, Ringo said:

We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night.  I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, "It's been a hard day..." and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, "Night!"  So we came to "A Hard Day's Night".

The song is unique in that Lennon sang it in glissando "haaard days night..." and that the Beatles recorded the song in mixolydic key, a key abandoned in the beginning of the seventeenth century, but maintained in English and Irish folk music.

"A Hard Day's Night" was the title song for the first of five Beatles movies.  At the time, the working title of the film was Beatlemania, but producer Walter Shenson told John he needed to write a song that would incorporate the movie's title.  Shenson was amazed when John came in the next day with a finished song; he thought Lennon and McCartney would work on it for several weeks.  Shenson told the Associated Press:

  

At 8:30 in the morning, there were John and Paul with guitars at the ready and all the lyrics scribbled on matchbook covers. They played it and the next night recorded it.  It had the right beat and the arrangement was brilliant.  These guys were geniuses.

After Lennon & McCartney wrote this, the name of the movie was changed to A Hard Day's Night, and the Beatles recorded the song right away, on April 16, 1964, at EMI Studios in London.  The group released the single in July.

"A Hard Day's Night" faced classics such as "Oh Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, the Beatles' own ""Love Me Do", "And I Love Her", and "Twist And Shout",  "I Get Around" by the Beach Boys, "The House Of The Rising Sun" by the Animals, and "My Guy" by Mary Wells.

Both the single "A Hard Day's Night" and corresponding album reached #1 in both the United States and the U.K., the first time the feat had ever been accomplished.  The Beatles continued to be the only artist to do so until 1970, when Simon & Garfunkel repeated it with the single "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and album of the same name.  "A Hard Day's Night" was the fifth of seven songs by the Beatles to reach #1 in 1964, still a Rock Era record.

The song enjoyed a 2-week stay at the top in the U.S., and posted 8 weeks in the Top 10.
 

The movie was filmed and marketed brilliantly, presenting the Beatles as four distinct personalities.  The concept has been followed many times since then, such as in the case of the Spice Girls.

"A Hard Day's Night" sold over 1 million singles, helped sell 29 million albums, and has been heard over four million times to date.

#102:

New Kid In Town
 Eagles 
1977

"I've always adored this song...and the harmonies at the end are just sooo wonderful ~~."

"Such a lovely track."

"Such a unique-sounding, pleasant song. The Eagles were so unbelievably talented."

"Awesome!  Love this song."

"Classic Eagles."

"Love it!"

"Brilliant!"

"One of the best songs ever."





The four original members of this group came from good rock lineage:  bassist Randy Meisner was with both Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band and Poco, guitarist Bernie Leadon had been in the Flying Burrito Brothers, Frey had played for Bob Seger, and drummer Don Henley was with the group Shiloh before becoming a session musician.  Lead guitarist Don Felder joined in 1974, and when ex-James Gang member Joe Walsh replaced Leadon in December of 1975, the Eagles were indeed flying high.

Henley, Frey, and friend J.D. Souther teamed to write this smash for the Eagles' album Hotel California.  Souther said:

We were writing about our replacements.  "New Kid" emerged from our whole fascination with gunfire as an analogy.  The point was at some point some kid would come riding into town that was much faster than you and he'd say so, and then he'd prove it.  That's the story of life.  That's the story of aging, especially coming out of your teenage and young man years and as you approach 30, you begin to see that things don't stay the same forever.  And that there's a lot other guys like you and gals like you that want the same thing that are coming up, and they want their moment, too, and they're going to get it.  And it's fine. It's as it should be.

"New Kid In Town" debuted on the charts in December of 1976.  If you were a Rock Era fan at that moment in time, you would have heard "New Kid In Town" alongside other current smashes such as "Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand, the Eagles' own "Hotel California", "Tonight's The Night" by Rod Stewart, ABBA's "Dancing Queen", "Lucille" by Kenny Rogers", "Go Your Own Way" from Fleetwood Mac, "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago, "When I Need You" by Leo Sayer, "Southern Nights" by Glen Campbell, "Rock'N Me" by the Steve Miller Band, and Boston's "More Than A Feeling".

"New Kid In Town" went to #1 overall and #2 for 3 weeks on the AC chart in the U.S.  It also hit #1 in Canada and #9 in the Netherlands.  The song has sold over 1 million singles and helped sell 33 million albums.  To date, it has topped 3 million in radio airplay.  "New Kid In Town" won a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement for Voices.

#101:

Hello
Lionel Richie 

1984

"Amazing song!"

"Beautiful song."

"Written with so much poetic feeling."

"So amazingly haunting."

"An endless classic."

"One of the best songs of all-time."

"What an amazing song."






This artist received a saxophone from his uncle and his grandmother then encouraged him to play piano.  When Lionel Richie went to school at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he met other aspiring musicians and formed the Commodores.  That group was one of the top acts of the mid-to-late '70s. 

 

In 1980, Richie wrote "Lady", which Kenny Rogers turned into a smash hit.  He then produced Kenny's album Share Your Love the following year.  Increasingly, Richie was in demand as a solo artist, and in March of 1982, he began work on his debut solo album with Commodores' producer James Carmichael.  After a 48-date world tour, Richie began work on his second album.

Richie used to watch beautiful women walk by him when he was young, only to be too shy to talk to them.  He thought to himself, "Hello, is it me you're looking for?"  Many years later, Richie began writing a song around the phrase but got stuck and gave up.  However, his producer liked the line and encouraged Lionel to finish it.  This song was completed for Richie's debut album but he left it off.  Richie's wife Brenda loved the song and encouraged him to include it on the album Can't Slow Down.

Richie recorded the song at Ocean Way Studios in Los Angeles.  Lionel also co-produced "Hello" with James Anthony Carmichael.  In February of 1984, the song began its ascent up the charts, meeting other current smashes such as "What's Love Got To Do With It" by Tina Turner, Michael Jackson's "Thriller", "Uptown Girl" by Billy Joel, "Jump" from Van Halen, "When Doves Cry" by Prince, "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins, "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" by Elton John, "Time After Time" from Cyndi Lauper, "Footlose" from Kenny Loggins, "Dancing In The Dark" by Bruce Springsteen, "Let's Hear It For The Boy" by Deniece Williams, and "Missing You" by John Waite. 

"Hello" was a huge across-the-board hit; it rose to #1 for 2 weeks overall, with 10 weeks in the Top 10, while topping the R&B chart for 3 weeks and the all-important Adult Contemporary chart for 6 weeks.  The song also went to #1 in the U.K., Australia, and the Netherlands, #3 in Austria, #5 in Norway, and #6 in Sweden.

"Hello" became the sixth solo release from Richie to go Top 10, following "Truly", "You Are", "My Love", "All Night Long", and "Running With The Night".  Lionel would run his streak to an amazing 12 with "Ballerina Girl" in 1987.  Richie also combined with Diana Ross for the #1 duet "Endless Love". 

 

Can't Slow Down is the biggest-selling album in the history of Motown Records.  "Hello" not only sold over 1 million singles but helped sell 11.5 million albums in the U.S. alone.  To date, the song has gone over 4 million in radio airplay.

 

 

There you have the most recent 10 songs to be unveiled in this elite list.  When you wake up tomorrow, you'll be presented with the first 10 entries in the all-time Top 500*...