Penny Lover

"Penny Lover"
North American 7" 45 RPM
Single by Lionel Richie
from the album Can't Slow Down
B-side"Tell Me"
ReleasedSeptember 1984
Recorded1983
GenrePop
Length
  • 3:46 (single version)
  • 5:35 (album version)
LabelMotown
Songwriter(s)
  • Lionel Richie
  • Brenda Harvey Richie
Producer(s)
  • Lionel Richie
  • James Anthony Carmichael
Lionel Richie singles chronology
"Stuck on You"
(1984) 		"Penny Lover"
(1984) 		"Say You, Say Me"
(1985)
Music video
"Lionel Richie - Penny Lover (Official Music Video)" on YouTube

"Penny Lover" is the title of the fifth and final single released from Lionel Richie's multi-platinum 1983 album, Can't Slow Down. The song was written by Richie and his then-wife, Brenda Harvey Richie.

As with all the other singles taken from Can't Slow Down ("All Night Long (All Night)", "Running with the Night", "Hello" and "Stuck on You"), "Penny Lover" was a top ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, spending two weeks at No. 8 in December 1984.[1] The song reached an identical No. 8 peak position on the Billboard R&B chart, while on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, the song logged four weeks at No. 1.[2] On the UK Singles Chart, the song reached number 18.[3] In Canada, it peaked at No. 12 on the RPM singles chart.

In a song review printed in Billboard by an anonymous writer in 1984, "Penny Lover" was described as "another of his unfailingly effective universal-appeal ballads".[2][4]

  1. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits, 8th Edition (Billboard Publications), page 529.
  2. ^ a b Hyatt, Wesley (1999). The Billboard Book of #1 Adult Contemporary Hits (Billboard Publications), page 288.
  3. ^ "Penny Lover | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company". Officialcharts.com.
  4. ^ "Singles Reviews". Billboard. October 6, 1984. p. 62. Retrieved 2023-02-10.