“Say You, Say Me” by Lionel Richie (1985)

One critic’s view:  “I like [the bridge].  This demented little part wakes the song up.  ‘Say You, Say Me’ is still a bad song, but it’s at least bad in some interesting ways.” – Tom Breihan @ Stereogum

The public’s view:  2.51 / 5.00, the fourth-worst #1 hit of 1985

I was not a Lionel Richie fan in the 1980s, but his songs never antagonized me in the way that “Separate Lives” did.  Richie was just an omnipresent and inevitable fact of life, extremely overplayed but completely harmless.  Based on the truckloads of trophies that he hauled home from every awards ceremony, I assumed that his music was beyond reproach and that it was my fault if I didn’t fully appreciate it.  In researching this project, however, I have learned that critics and listeners are not universally fond of his legacy.  And thus “Say You, Say Me” earns a spot in our museum of bad #1 hits.

“Say You, Say Me” is not the most poorly regarded of Richie’s #1s.  That would be “Truly”, whose Rate Your Music score is so low that it beats “Ebony and Ivory” as the worst chart-topper of 1982.  However, “Truly” is merely an ordinary, boring love ballad that is almost interchangeable with several other songs that Richie has written.  “Say You, Say Me” stands apart from the rest of his oeuvre, both lyrically and musically and in both positive and negative ways.  Its main selling point is an unusual up-tempo bridge that sounds like it was transplanted from a different song.  For a brief moment, Richie defies all of the rules of the adult contemporary genre.  Clive Davis probably called the police when he heard this on the radio the first time.

The lyrics of “Say You, Say Me” are cryptic, but Richie had already written another chart-topping single that left everyone bewildered:  “Three Times a Lady”.  What did he mean by that title, anyway?  As a kid, that song made no sense to me but I didn’t feel I could question it.  It reminded me of my religion lessons about the mysterious Holy Trinity consisting of God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Surprisingly, no one ever reworked Richie’s song into a Christian version called “Three Times a Deity”.  Amy Grant left some money on the table there.

Some fans knew that Richie had based “Three Times a Lady” on his dad’s emotional tribute to Lionel’s mom:  she was a great wife, mother, and friend.  But looking for similar meaning in “Say You, Say Me” is as futile as analyzing “I Am the Walrus”.  People have tried and have been driven mad.  The song contains a few lines about friendship and self-worth that are nice on their own, but there’s no cohesive message other than that Lionel can now buy a fourth yacht.  He had an awesome dream, indeed.

I find most of Richie’s songs to be uninspired (except for the touching origin of “Three Times a Lady”), but at least they are competently assembled.  “Say You, Say Me” is the complete opposite.  It’s as if Lionel’s head was suddenly bursting with ideas other than just telling a woman how great she is for the 17th time, and he tried to jam those unrelated thoughts into one song as quickly as he could.  It’s a blend of creativity and sloppiness from a man who isn’t usually known for either.