Hello (Lionel Richie song)

Infobox Single
Name = Hello


Artist = Lionel Richie
Album = Can't Slow Down
B-side = "You Mean More to Me"
Released = 1984
Genre = Pop
Length = 4:07
Label = Motown
Writer = Lionel Richie
Producer = Lionel Richie, James Anthony Carmichael
Last single = "Running with the Night" (1983)
This single = "Hello" (1984)
Next single = "Stuck on You" (1984)"Hello" is a song by Lionel Richie. Taken as the third single from Richie's multi-platinum album "Can't Slow Down", the song was released in 1984 and reached number one on three "Billboard" music charts: the pop chart (for two weeks); the R&B chart (for three weeks); and the adult contemporary chart (for six weeks). The song also went to #1 on the UK Singles Chart. It is considered by many as Richie's signature song.

The song is particularly memorable for the line "Hello, is it me you're looking for?". In an interview broadcast in the UK on Channel 4's "Top 100 Number One Hits", Richie said he had been thanked by a large number of normally tongue-tied men who had proposed marriage after a slow dance to the song.

Music video

Arguably the music video attracted more attention than the song, for its story of Richie's character (a music teacher) having a seemingly unrequited love for a blind arts student (played by Laura Carrington, an actress who is not really blind) until he discovers she shares the feeling as demonstrated by the discovery that she is sculpting a likeness of his head (which was actually created by a professional sculptor who never met Lionel). The video has been parodied a number of times including a Starburst commercial when the sculpture is made from Starburst candy. According to the video's appearance in VH1's Pop Up Video, the video was an adaptation of an unproduced screenplay called "Spaldeen Summers".

Chart performance

In popular culture

"Hello" was featured in the 2005 film "The 40-Year-Old Virgin", as well as Roman Polański's 1992 film "Bitter Moon". It was also parodied in the movie "Scary Movie 4" during the "Brokeback Mountain" parody. The intro was used during a stormy scene in "Are We Done Yet?", only to be cut short by a lightning bolt.

Also, the Disney TV special "DTV Valentine" featured a music video of the song set to the "Twitterpated" scene from "Bambi". Peter Griffin also listened to "Hello" in the Family Guy episode "Stewie Kills Lois" repeatedly saying "Yes, Lionel, you have been hurt, I feel your pain!, who hurt you? who hurt you? who hurt you, who hurt you". It was also used in an episode of "Seinfeld".

Cover versions

*Alex To covered a Blues version of the song in 1993, which peaked at number three on the MTV Asian Top 20 Video Countdown.
*Paul Anka covered a swing jazz version of the song on his 2005 album "Rock Swings".
*Techno artist The Field sampled the song for the track "A Paw in My Face", off the 2007 album "From Here We Go Sublime".
*David Cook covered the song with a pop/rock version on Season 7 of American Idol in the semi-finals on March 4, 2008
*Incubus covered an acoustic version at Morning View in 2002.
*The Cuban nightclub singer Margarita Pracatan covered the song to great popular success on the BBC series "Saturday Night Clive", hosted by Clive James.
*Me First and the Gimme Gimmes covered a punk version in their album "Take a Break".
*Finnish heavy metal band Northern Kings covered the song in their 2007 album "Reborn".

References