Oh-oh! I'm in trouble!
Boss says if I don't get the finger out and get my, er, stuff together this is going to be relegated to one post per month. I can see his point: it does say "Cheese of the week", and lord knows I've missed some deadlines, but hey, I'm a busy girl! Still, if I don't get off my ---perfectly formed! --- ass soon and make sure this is updated every week, you may find a change in the title to my only section. Hmm. Maybe I can get my nails done Thursdays, instead of....
Anyway, on, for the moment, with the show.
Is there such a thing as too much love? Look, we all love to be called a lady --- us girls that is. And maybe some of you guys. Hey, I don't know what you get up to behind closed doors! Don't wanna know, thanks very much. But seriously, telling someone they're a lady three times? Is that not a little over the top? Now, I've read the entry on this song and I see where the idea came from, but even so, once should be enough. That's not by any means the only problem I have with this song however.
Three times a lady (The Commodores) 1978
The whole premise of the song seems a little flawed to me. It opens, as we all know, with Lionel Richie singing to his lady, and thanking her for the love she's given him. Then he says they've reached the end of their rainbow. What does
that mean? Is he about to break up with her? If so, why go on with the “once, twice, three times a lady” bit? Or is she dying? Is he just referring to a life lived together, the kids gone and they're left alone together? Or what the hell is he talking about? Never quite figured it out, me.
Either way, this was the song that rocketed the hitherto-unknown soul group to number one, and effectively launched the solo career of their vocalist and songwriter, who would go on to have a string of hits on his own, leaving the poor old Commodores behind, facing an odd dilemma: suddenly, after years of patient slog, they had hit the big time. But then, Richie leaves and no-one wants to know about the band left behind. It's Lionel all the way for the chart-record-buyers, and some probably even convince themselves that this song was a Lionel Richie solo. It certainly appears on his greatest hits albums. To be fair, the Commodores had a big hit single the year before this, and one or two after it, too, however once Richie left in 1982 they failed to hit the big time again, except just the once, with “Nightshift”, a sort of comeback single that really spelled the end of their chart career.
But this song is cheese personified. Sure, it's gone down as one of the best-loved and most-played ballads, and probably figures in many a wedding playlist, but it's sugar on top of sugar. It's got a nice arrangement, that's certainly true, and Richie was more than capable of writing a great love song. But personally I preferred “Easy”, or the simple beauty of “Still”.