Lionel Richie and the younger set

As the late George Burns could attest, if you live long enough most of the people around you will be younger than you. This is especially true in the music business, where many artists have fairly short popularity lifespans.

Ex-Commodore Lionel Richie is still going strong with help from people much younger than himself (and his core audience), as the New York Times notes.

On the lightly Caribbean-flavored title track ["Just You"] — produced by Akon and now on the Hot Adult Contemporary chart — he sings, “I’m here to take that stress from you.” Then he offers to cook a meal, make the bed and spirit you by sailboat to the Bahamas, where he’ll make good on the promise of a massage....

Mr. Richie doesn’t sound out of his element singing on tracks provided by contemporary R&B hit makers, complete with up-to-the-minute production....

“Just Go” features five songs apiece by Stargate and another bankable team, Christopher Stewart, known as Tricky, and Terius Nash, known as The-Dream. Mr. Richie has inspired both camps, and maybe sparked some competition: Stargate writes a song called “Forever,” and the other duo comes up with “Forever and a Day.”

More here.