Beyoncé Has Embraced Country

In the summer of 1984, Lionel Richie, in the middle of an epic run of pop and R&B hits from his blockbuster album Can’t Slow Down, chose a fourth single from the LP that was very different from its predecessors. Richie had already stretched himself sonically on the calypso-adjacent “All Night Long (All Night)” (No. 1, 1983), the rocking “Running With the Night” (No. 7, 1984), and the quiet-storm torch song “Hello” (No. 1, 1984). For the follow-up, Richie went with “Stuck on You,” a twangy ballad that for all the world sounded like a country song.