Today in 1980, Kenny Rogers topped the pop singles chart with “Lady.”

Written by Lionel Richie and first recorded by American country artist Kenny Rogers, it was released in September 1980 on the album Kenny Rogers’ Greatest Hits.

It is listed at #60 on Billboard’s All Time Top 100. 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 boosted 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. Richie performed the song himself on his 1998 album, Time, and he and Rogers performed the song as a duet on Richie’s 2012 release Tuskegee. Lionel Richie had originally pitched this song to the Commodores and they turned it down. Then later, it was given to Kenny Rogers to record and it became the biggest selling hit single for him as a solo artist.

Source: Wikipedia