Hello (Lionel Richie song)

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“Hello”
Single by Lionel Richie from the album Can't Slow Down
B-side	"You Mean More to Me"
Released	1984
Genre	Pop
Length	4:07
Label	Motown
Writer(s)	Lionel Richie
Producer	Lionel Richie, James Anthony Carmichael
Lionel Richie singles chronology
"Running with the Night" (1983) "Hello" (1984) "Stuck on You" (1984)

"Hello" is a song by Lionel Richie. It was released as a single in 1984 and reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. It is considered by many as Richie's signature song.

Arguably the music video attracted more attention than the song, for its story of Richie's character having a seemingly unrequited love for a blind arts student until he discovers she shares the feeling as demonstrated by the discovery that she is sculpting a likeness of his head. The video has been parodied a number of times including a Starburst commercial when the sculpture is made from Starburst.

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.

Contents 1 Chart performance 2 In popular culture 3 Cover versions 4 References

[edit] Chart performance

Country	Peak position
Australia	1
The Netherlands	1[1]
New Zealand	1
Switzerland	1
UK	1
US	1

[edit] In popular culture

It 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. 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" repeatably saying "Yes Lionel, you have been hurt, I feel your pain!". It was also used in an episode of Seinfeld. The intro was used during a stormy scene in Are We Done Yet?, only to be cut short by a lightning bolt.

[edit] Cover versions

• 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.
• Northern Kings featuring Jarkko Ahola from Teräsbetoni, Marco Hietala from Nightwish and Tarot, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppäluoto from Charon covered the song and released it as the second single from their 2007 album Reborn.
• 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.

[edit] References

Preceded by "99 Red Balloons" by Nena	UK number one single March 20, 1984	Succeeded by "The Reflex" by Duran Duran
Preceded by "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" by Phil Collins	Billboard Hot 100 number one single May 12, 1984 - May 19, 1984	Succeeded by "Let's Hear It for the Boy" by Deniece Williams
Preceded by "Don't Waste Your Time" by Yarbrough & Peoples	Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number-one single June 2, 1984- June 9, 1984	Succeeded by "Let's Hear It for the Boy" by Deniece Williams