All Night Long (All Night)

"All Night Long (All Night)"
7" cover
Single by Lionel Richie
from the album Can't Slow Down
B-side"Wandering Stranger"
ReleasedAugust 31, 1983[1]
Genre
Length
  • 4:20 (single version)
  • 6:25 (album version)
  • 3:49 (video version)
LabelMotown
Songwriter(s)Lionel Richie
Producer(s)
  • Lionel Richie
  • James Anthony Carmichael
Lionel Richie singles chronology
"My Love"
(1983) 		"All Night Long (All Night)"
(1983) 		"Running with the Night"
(1983)
Music video
"All Night Long (All Night)" on YouTube

"All Night Long (All Night)" is a song by American singer and songwriter Lionel Richie from his second solo album, Can't Slow Down (1983). The song combined Richie's Commodores style with Caribbean influences. The single reached number one on three Billboard charts (pop, R&B and adult contemporary).[5] In the UK, it peaked at number two on the singles chart.[6]

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 "Tam bo li de say de moi ya" and "Jambo jumbo", were in fact gibberish.[7] 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.[8]

  1. ^ "Gold & Platinum". RIAA.
  2. ^ Johnson Publishing Company (14 November 1983). Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. p. 54.
  3. ^ Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 6 April 1985. p. 105.
  4. ^ Breihan, Tom (9 September 2020). "The Number Ones: Billy Ocean's "Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)"". Stereogum. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
  5. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 492.
  6. ^ "UK singles chart details for 'All Night Long (All Night)'". officialcharts.com. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  7. ^ Fleming, Kirsten (21 September 2013). "Five surprising facts about Richie's classic 'All Night Long'". New York Post.
  8. ^ Id.