Lionel Richie

If Lionel Richie had only been the frontman for The Commodores he would have earned a place in music history, but his subsequent solo career made him a superstar in the '80s and beyond. Richie was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on June 20, 1949, where he began playing in bands in the '60s. In 1968, he and some members of his band The Mystics merged with members of another local band, The Jays, to form The Commodores. Though the band would later become famous for a pop-friendly R&B approach, their early sound was far edgier and funkier. With Richie on vocals, keyboards, and sax, The Commodores released their debut album, Machine Gun, in 1974, scoring a hit with the instrumental title track. By 1976 they were reaching the upper rungs of the Top 40 with hits like "Sweet Love" and "Just To Be Close To You." But they became bona fide pop stars the following year with the ubiquitous smashes "Easy" and "Brick House." Though Richie wasn't the band's only singer/songwriter, his name became synonymous with The Commodores by the time of hit ballads like 1978's "Three Times a Lady" and 1979's "Still." By the beginning of the '80s he was penning pop hits for others, like Kenny Rogers' "Lady." A solo career seemed imminent, and after 1981's In the Pocket, he left The Commodores, releasing his hugely successful, self-titled solo album in 1982, featuring the hits "You Are," "Truly," and "My Love." 1983 blockbuster follow-up Can't Slow Down was the biggest album of Richie's career, eventually achieving Diamond status and including No. 1 hits "Hello" and "All Night Long." 1986's Dancing on the Ceiling boasted huge hits too, like the title track and "Say You, Say Me." Richie's profile dipped with his '90s releases, but he experienced something of a comeback with 2006's Coming Home, his first Gold album in a decade. And in 2012 he earned his first No. 1 album since the '80s by shifting direction with Tuskegee, a country-flavored album on which he partnered with top country singers on new versions of his classic tunes.