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All Night Long (All Night)

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B-side
  
"Wandering Stranger"

Format
  
7", 12"

Writer(s)
  
Lionel Richie

Released
  
31 August 1983

Label
  
Motown

Length
  
4:20 (Single edit) 6:19 (Album version)

"All Night Long (All Night)" is a hit single by American singer-songwriter Lionel Richie from 1983. Taken from his second solo album, Can't Slow Down, it combined Richie's soulful Commodores style with Caribbean influences. This new, more dance music, pop-inspired approach proved popular, as the single reached number one on three Billboard charts (pop, R&B and adult contemporary). Richard Marx contributed backing vocals as an unknown until his 1986 debut album appeared.

Contents

In the UK, the song was kept off the top spot by Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl", peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart for three weeks.

The song lyrics were written primarily in English, but Richie has admitted in at least one press interview that "African" lyrics in the song, such as "Tom bo li de say de moi ya," and "Jambo jumbo," were in fact made-up gibberish of his own invention. Richie has described these portions of the song as a "wonderful joke," written when he discovered that he lacked the time to hire a translator to contribute the foreign language lyrics he wished to include in the song.

The song has achieved massive popularity in the Arab World, where Richie is as well known, if not more than in his native U.S. The Independent has referred to Richie as "a phenomenon" over the past decade or so in nations such as Iraq, with "Hello" also achieving much success.

Music video

An accompanying music video was produced by former Monkee and TV video pioneer Michael Nesmith and directed by Bob Rafelson.

Notable performances

Richie performed the song at the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

  • U.S. military personnel told Richie that "All Night Long (All Night)" was playing in the nighttime streets of Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
  • The song can be heard twice in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's eighth season episode "Charlie Kelly Rules the World".
  • The song was used in the 1998 movie The Wedding Singer during Julia Sullivan's (Drew Barrymore) engagement party.
  • The song can be heard in The Simpsons' twenty-third season episode "Moe Goes from Rags to Riches".
  • The online comedy duo, Rhett and Link, performed a karaoke version of "All Night Long (All Night)" continuously for 11 hours overnight in August 2012.
  • The song was used in 1984 Turkish film, Ortadirek Şaban.
  • It was used in an episode of Everybody Hates Chris.
  • The song was used in The Cleveland Show episode, "Da Doggone Daddy-Daughter Dinner Dance".
  • The song was used in the South Park episode, "Taming Strange," when the school's computer interface program fails.
  • In Luc Besson's sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997), Chris Tucker's character Ruby Rhod, a flamboyant, Prince-esque 23rd-century broadcaster, uses the first lines of the chorus in a scene.
  • On 2 April 2015, the rapper Common used the song in his second performance on the Spike TV show Lip Sync Battle. Common also had a song called "All Night Long" from his 1997 album One Day It'll All Make Sense.
  • The song was used in the 2014 film While We're Young and featured on its soundtrack.
  • WWE wrestler Rich Swann used the song as his entrance in the independent circuit.
  • A live performance of the song was used in season 1, episode 1 of Miami Vice titled "Pilot/Brother's Keeper" in 1984.

    • Remix version

    Richie recorded a remix of the song with Australian singer-songwriter Guy Sebastian in 2011. All proceeds will go towards the Queensland Floods and New Zealand Earthquake Appeal. The re-recorded version was produced by RedOne and was released to iTunes Stores in Australia and New Zealand on 18 and 16 March respectively.

    It debuted on the New Zealand Singles Chart at number twelve on 21 March 2011 and on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart at number twenty-six on 28 March 2011.

    Samplings

    Parts of the song were used in "I Like It", a 2010 song composed by Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull, and RedOne with samplings from Lionel Richie as 1983 classic is interpolated after the first and third choruses. The release was a massive hit for Enrique Iglesias featuring Pitbull. The song was also included in Iglesias' album Euphoria.

    In July 2016, it was sampled by the Tanzanian singer Diamond Platnumz in his song "Kidogo" that uses the "party, karambo, fiesta, forever" bit changing it to "[she got me] dancing, party, fiesta, forever". The single features additional vocals by the Nigerian duo P-Square.

    Charts

    Original 1983 version

    2011 version (featuring Guy Sebastian)

    References

    All Night Long (All Night) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA