"Lady" is a song made famous by American country and pop
music singer Kenny Rogers.
It is listed at #47 on
Billboard's All Time Top 100.[1]
The song was written and produced by Lionel Richie, and
ranks among Rogers' biggest hits. Recorded in 1980, Rogers once
told an interviewer, "The idea was that Lionel would come from
R&B and I'd come from country, and we'd meet somewhere in
pop."
The success of "Lady" also proved instrumental to Richie's
career. The production work on the song was his first outside
the Commodores and foreshadowed his success as a solo act
during the 1980s. Rogers was also a featured vocalist on "We
Are the World," co-written by Richie.
Since his breakup with the First Edition, Rogers had tasted
considerable success as a solo act, with nine No. 1 entries on
the
Billboard magazineHot Country Singles chart (prior to
the release of "Lady"), plus several Top 10 hits on the
Billboard Hot 100 and Adult Contemporary Singles charts.
"Lady," according to music historian Fred Bronson, would
prove to be an important record for both Richie and Rogers. It
became the first record of the 1980s to chart on all four of
Billboard magazine'ssingles charts - country, Hot 100,
adult contemporary and Top Black Singles.
It reached No. 1 on three of those charts in late 1980,
including a six-week run on the Hot 100 and one week on the Hot
Country Singles chart. "Lady" also peaked at number forty-two
on the Top Black Singles chart..
As a country entry, "Lady" was Rogers' 10th chart-topping
hit in a career that saw him collect 20 No. 1 songs between
1977 and 2000. On the Hot 100, it was his only solo
chart-topping song, although Rogers would have a duet No. 1
three years later (1983's "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly
Parton). On the Adult Contemporary Singles chart, "Lady" was
Rogers' second (of eight) songs that reached the chart's
summit.