The cost of his solo success was the end of the Commodores as a functioning unit. Richie had written the hits that made the band famous -- Easy, Three Times a Lady, Still -- and those songs became standards that crossed over to pop audiences the band had never reached on their own before. As his solo career exploded after he wrote Kenny Rogers' Lady and that song became a massive hit, the gap between his profile and the band's became impossible to ignore. The Commodores continued releasing albums, but the chemistry that had made them great was fractured in a way that could not be repaired. His self-titled debut in 1982 produced Truly, and the follow-up Can't Slow Down in 1983 sold over ten million copies and produced All Night Long, Hello, Stuck on You, and Penny Lover in an unprecedented run of radio dominance.

All Night Long is the one. The song is a global invitation that anyone can join regardless of language or origin, with a chorus designed so that every person in any stadium can sing along within seconds of hearing it for the first time. He wrote We Are the World with Michael Jackson, a charity single that raised over sixty million dollars for African famine relief and brought together the biggest names in music. He won four Grammys, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received a Kennedy Center Honor.

He never lost the Tuskegee ease that made everything sound effortless, and his songs have outlasted every trend that followed their release.