You're My Lady.

Because the media coverage of Michael Jackson's life and death has been a 7/24 affair these days, I could not help but be reminded of the other great singers and songwriters of my younger days. Like Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers.

These two singers collaborated on a record titled Lady.

The song was written and produced by Lionel Richie, and ranks among Rogers' biggest hits. Recorded in 1980, 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 proved instrumental to 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.

"Lady" would prove to be an important record for both Richie and Rogers. It became the first record of the 1980s to chart on all four of Billboard magazine's singles charts - country, Hot 100, adult contemporary and Top Black Singles.

It reached No. 1 on three of those charts in late 1980, including a six-week run on the Hot 100 and one week on the Hot Country Singles chart.
As a country entry, "Lady" was Rogers' 10th chart-topping hit in a career that saw him collect 20 No. 1 songs between 1977 and 2000. On the Hot 100, it was his only solo chart-topping song, although Rogers would have a duet No. 1 three years later (1983's "Islands in the Stream" with Dolly Parton).

Some snooty Pinoys consider Kenny Rogers' songs so baduy; not me.

But too bad that Kenny Rogers gave in to vanity and altered his face. Now, it's hard to know the real Kenny Rogers, and for a brief period after his cosmetic alterations, he had become the butt of jokes of late night shows.

But his songs, just like Lady, cannot alter his influence on many listeners' lives and universe.

LADY

By Lionel Richie

Lady, I'm your knight in shining armor and I love you

You have made me what I am and I'm yours

My love, there's so many ways I want to say I love you

Let me hold you in my arms forever more

You have gone and made me such a fool

I'm so lost in your love

And oh, we belong together

Won't you believe in my song?

Lady, for so many years I thought I'd never find you

You have come into my life and, made me whole

Forever let me wake to see you each and every morning

Let me hear you whisper softly in my ear

In my eyes I see no one else but you

There's no other love like our love

Oh yes, I'll always want you near me

I've waited for you for so long

Oh, Lady, your love's the only love I need

And beside me is where I want you to be'cause,'cos, my love, my love, there's somethin'

I want you to know

You're the love of my life, of my life, you're my lady

You're my lady.