Three Times a Lady

"Three Times a Lady"
A-side label of the U.S. vinyl single
Single by Commodores
from the album Natural High
B-side "Look What You've Done to Me"
Released 1978
Genre Soul
Length 3:36 (7" )
6:36 (12" )
Label Motown
Songwriter(s) Lionel Richie
Producer(s) James Anthony Carmichael

"Three Times a Lady" is a song by American soul group the Commodores, from their 1978 album Natural High. It was produced by James Anthony Carmichael and the Commodores. It was also the only Motown song to reach the Top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 that year. It was the Commodores' first Billboard Hot 100 number-one hit, topping the chart for two weeks on August 12, 1978 and it also went to number one on the soul chart for two weeks.[1] The song spent three weeks at #1 on the adult contemporary chart.[2]

The song also reached #1 on the Canadian RPM Singles Chart for four weeks, and was one of only a few Motown singles to reach the top spot in the UK Singles Chart, staying there for five weeks.[3] The song was also successful in Ireland, staying at #1 in the charts for three consecutive weeks. It was #1 in Australia for five weeks, and reached #2 in New Zealand.

The original Commodores' version of the song was included as the final track on Lionel Richie's greatest hits compilation album Back To Front, released in 1992.

In an appearance on The Early Show on June 12, 2009, Lionel Richie said he was inspired to write the song because of a comment his father made about his mother. His father said to his mother "I love you. I want you. I need you. Forever," hence the three times a lady.[4]

Covers

"Three Times a Lady"
Single by Conway Twitty
from the album Lost in the Feeling
B-side "I Think I'm in Love"
Released November 1983
Format 7"
Recorded February 1–2, 1983
Sound Stage Studio, Nashville, Tennessee
Genre Country
Length 3:42
Label Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s) Lionel Richie
Producer(s) Jimmy Bowen, Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty singles chronology
"We Had It All"
(1983)		 "Three Times a Lady"
(1983)		 "Somebody's Needin' Somebody"
(1984)
  • Nate Harvell recorded one of the first country versions in 1978, reaching #23 on the Billboard country chart.
  • The song was also covered in the country genre by country singer Billy "Crash" Craddock on his 1986 album Crash Craddock and in 2007 by Cobra Starship as an iTunes bonus track for their album ¡Viva La Cobra!. In 2001 it was covered by Anglo-Norwegian boy band a1 and featured on Motown Mania and as a bonus track on their hit single "No More".
  • The Shadows did an instrumental of the song on Moonlight Shadows (1986).
  • Kenny Rogers covered the song on After Dark. It was also featured on his hits compilation All The Hits And All New Love Songs. Rogers performed the song on the Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters television show on November 29, 1980.
  • The most successful cover version was performed by Conway Twitty, whose version appears on his 1983 album Lost in the Feeling. Twitty's version reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in the late winter of 1984. Allmusic reviewer Tom Jurek wrote that "Three Times a Lady" and the previous single, "Heartache Tonight" "offer(ed) a solid view of Twitty's amazing crossover potential, and his ability to take well-known pop tracks and turn them into solid country smashes long after the countrypolitan days of Chet Atkins and RCA."[5] (In addition to "Heartache Tonight" [a cover of a song by The Eagles], Twitty had successfully covered "Slow Hand" and "The Rose," previously pop hits for the Pointer Sisters and Bette Midler, respectively.)
  • On the South Park episode Christian Rock Hard Cartman's band "Faith + 1" parodies this song and changes the title to "Three Times My Saviour".
  • On The Sopranos episode The Test Dream, John Heard sings the first verse and chorus to a table full of people including Tony Soprano during a long dream sequence.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 130.
  2. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 62.
  3. ↑ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 356–7. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  4. ↑ "Interview: Lionel Richie". Channel24. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
  5. ↑ Thom Jurek. "Lost in the Feeling - Conway Twitty | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic. Retrieved 2014-03-28.
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