Dancing On the Ceiling

On Lionel Richie's third solo album, the ex-Commodore merges different genres into the glossy R&B sound he became known for. Though a departure from the straight-ahead soul of 1983’s Can’t Slow Down, songs like the pondering “Say You, Say Me” and the festive “Dancing on the Ceiling” have become bonafide classics in the mainstream pop canon. Some 30 years later, this album can be seen as a victory lap, one in which Richie fully embraces his pop stardom and proves that the funk and soul sounds of his previous releases were clearly a thing of the past.