Maps of Music

Just for You (2003)

Where the lyrics of Just for You take you, and where it was really made.

The album was released shortly after Richie's divorce from his second wife, and Richie has said he dedicated it to himself rather than to his ex-wife.

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Album story

Overview

• Seventh studio album by American singer Lionel Richie
• Released by Island Records first on March 8, 2004, in the United Kingdom
• Released shortly after Richie's divorce from his second wife, Diane
• Features collaborations with Chuckii Booker, Mark Taylor, Ric Wake, and producer 7 Aurelius
• Daniel Bedingfield and Lenny Kravitz appear as guest vocalists

Background

• Richie had been a member of the Commodores before becoming a solo artist in the early 1980s
• Can't Slow Down (1983) made him one of the biggest solo acts in the country before he left the industry in 1987
• He worked toward a comeback in the late 1990s, but his albums did not chart or sell noticeably in the United States
• The compilation The Definitive Collection (2003) and his daughter Nicole's appearance in The Simple Life returned him to public attention
• Shortly before producing Just for You, Richie and his wife Diane were divorced
• For this album he brought in singers and musicians from different genres
• Lenny Kravitz and Daniel Bedingfield sang duets with him
• Songwriters Paul Barry and Mark Taylor, known mainly for light work, wrote several songs
• Richie said in a 2004 NBC interview that his manager in London had approached him to record the album
• He found it easy to write because "all I had to do was play myself"
• He said "Three Times a Lady" was dedicated to his ex-wife Brenda, while Just for You was dedicated to himself, an "introverted perspective" on what had excited him

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born June 20, 1949, in Tuskegee, Alabama; grew up on the Tuskegee Institute campus and attended Tuskegee Institute on a tennis scholarship.
• In the late 1960s he joined the Commodores as singer and saxophonist; they moved from Atlantic to Motown, first as a support act to The Jackson 5.
• Commodores' early funky sound ("Machine Gun", "Brick House") gave way to romantic ballads he wrote and sang, such as "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", "Still" and "Sail On".

Career

• 1974: first commercial songwriting success with "Happy People", recorded by The Temptations as a No. 1 R&B hit.
• 1980: wrote "Lady" for Kenny Rogers, a US No. 1; produced Rogers' album Share Your Love in 1981.
• 1981: "Endless Love", a duet with Diana Ross, became one of Motown's biggest hits.
• 1982: debut solo album Lionel Richie, with the No. 1 single "Truly", sold over 4 million copies.
• 1983: Can't Slow Down won Album of the Year and sold over twice as many copies; "All Night Long" was a No. 1 hit.
• 1985: co-wrote "We Are the World" with Michael Jackson; "Say You, Say Me" from White Nights won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.
• 1986: Dancing on the Ceiling, his last widely popular album; a break from recording followed until the 1992 hits collection Back to Front.
• Sold over 90 million records worldwide and won four Grammy Awards.
• Judge on American Idol from its 16th season (2018 onward).
• 2022: inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Mixed reviews, with much of the criticism aimed at the lyrics
• Album of the Year collected 4 reviews, averaging 51 out of 100
• Soul Shine Magazine's Dominic Darrah gave four out of five stars, praising its mix of "sweet ballads" and "new sounds"
• The Guardian's Dave Simpson found Richie "disturbingly in tune with the times," mixing "boy band anthems" with funk, rock, and soul
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave three out of five stars, calling the album "well-crafted" and cohesive, but weaker than Richie's 1980s work
• Vibe's Marcus Reeves gave three stars, finding tracks like "She's Amazing" reflective of Richie's earlier work, and dismissing the "cheesy, clichéd lyrics"
• Reeves concluded that the album would please only Richie's existing fans
• BBC Music's Jack Smith found it "far better than many would ofdreamed [sic] possible" and praised the two duets
• musicOMH's Clare Colley called it a "back to basics record" but found the lyrics generally "mawkish" and the album "chronically underdeveloped and bland"
• Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard and Jon Caramanica gave two stars out of five
• Entertainment Weekly's Kristina Feliciano was highly critical, calling the lyrics "flaccid"
• RTÉ.ie's Katie Moten found the album "disappointing" and lacking originality, naming "Do Ya" as the only good song

Reappraisal

• Later reviewers did not revisit the album in the source text

Records

• Entered the top five in Austria and the United Kingdom
• Reached the top ten in Germany and Switzerland
• UK sales passed 100,000 copies within the first two weeks; certified gold by the BPI
• US debut at number 47 on the Billboard 200 and number 22 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart
• Highest-charting album since Louder Than Words (1996)
• US sales reached 207,000 copies as of May 2012, per Nielsen SoundScan
• "Just for You" peaked at number 6 on the US Adult Contemporary chart

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Richie said he had been approached to record the album by his manager in London.
• Richie described the album as dedicated to himself, unlike "Three Times a Lady", which he dedicated to his ex-wife Brenda.
• Mark Taylor and Paul Barry, known mainly for light work, wrote several of the songs.
• The album was released in the United States on May 4, 2004, after the UK release in March.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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