By Billboard’s cumulative Hot 100 performance ranking surfaced in its March 24, 2012 issue, Lionel Richie’s biggest hit is “Endless Love,” his duet with Diana Ross. “All Night Long (All Night)” ranks second. That is a chart-performance measure—not a list ordered only by each song’s highest position.
What Billboard’s ranking says
The archived Billboard issue dated March 24, 2012 presents a top-20 ranking based on cumulative Hot 100 chart performance. Its searchable extract identifies “Endless Love” at No. 1 and “All Night Long (All Night)” at No. 2. The archive PDF could not be directly verified, so the remaining positions cannot be established here. View the March 24, 2012 Billboard issue at World Radio History.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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The Definitive Collection | $11.96 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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38 Greatest Hits of Lionel Richie / Commodores | $18.98 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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The Best of Lionel Richie: 20th Century Masters (Millennium Collection) | $10.91 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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The Definitive Collection | $4.03 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Truly: The Love Songs | $14.11 | Buy on Amazon |
“Biggest” therefore means strongest cumulative performance in that historical ranking, not necessarily the highest peak or the most weeks at No. 1. Those are separate ways to compare a hit, and a different measure can produce a different answer.
How the answer changes with the measure
| Measure | What it establishes |
|---|---|
| Cumulative Hot 100 performance | “Endless Love” ranks No. 1 and “All Night Long (All Night)” No. 2 in the ranking extract from Billboard’s March 24, 2012 issue. The full top-20 order is not established. |
| Peak position and time at No. 1 | “Hello” spent two weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. chart in May 1984, according to Motown. This is a peak-and-duration fact, not the cumulative ranking. |
| UK singles chart | Official Charts lists “Hello” at No. 1 for six weeks. This is a UK chart result, not the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. |
Motown’s history of Lionel Richie and Can’t Slow Down gives the U.S. “Hello” chart detail; the UK peak is listed in the Official Charts Company’s Lionel Richie history.
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Why Can’t Slow Down matters
Motown released Can’t Slow Down on October 14, 1983. All five singles from the album reached the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10, making it an important part of Richie’s run of major U.S. hits. The label reports the album sold 10 million certified copies in the United States and spent 160 weeks on Billboard charts. It also reports three weeks at No. 1 and 59 weeks in the album chart’s Top 10, plus 23 weeks at No. 1 on the U.S. R&B chart. These are album figures, not sales or chart totals for any individual single. Motown’s album history.
For another territory-specific comparison, Official Charts lists Can’t Slow Down at No. 1 on the UK albums chart for three weeks. That album-chart result should not be conflated with the U.S. Hot 100 ranking of singles.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Was “Endless Love” Richie’s biggest hit?
Yes, if “biggest” refers to the cumulative Billboard Hot 100 performance ranking reported in the 2012 issue: “Endless Love,” credited to Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, is first. “All Night Long (All Night)” is second. If the question instead means which Richie single reached the U.S. No. 1 position and how long it stayed there, Motown reports that “Hello” spent two weeks at the summit in May 1984. These answers use different chart measures, so they are not contradictory.
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