All Night Long | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: N.C :||
||: Absus2 Ab | Gbsus2 Gb:||
Da Da, ooooh.
Verse 1
||: Absus2 Ab | Gbsus2 Gb | Bbm | Ab :||
Well, my friends, the time has come, to raise the roof and have some fun.
Throw away the work to be done, let the music play on.
Everybody sing, everybody dance. Lose yourself in wild romance.
We’re going to Party, Karamu, Fiesta, forever. Come on and sing along!
| Absus2 Ab | Gbsus2 Gb | Bbm | Ab | 2/4 Ab |
We’re going to Party, Karamu, Fiesta, forever. Come on and sing along!
Chorus 1
||: Gb Gbsus2 Gb | Gb Gbsus2 Gb | Ab Absus2 Ab | Ab Absus2 Ab :||
All night long (all night), All night (all night).
All night long (all night), All night (all night).
All night long (all night), All night (all night).
All night long! (all night), Ooh, yeah (all night).
Verse 2
||: Abadd9 | Gbadd9 | Bbm | Ab :||
People dancing all in the street, see the rhythm all in their feet
Life is good, wild, and sweet, let the music play on.
Feel it in your heart and feel it in your soul, let the music take control.
| Ab | Gb | Bbm | Ab | 2/4 Ab |
We’re going to Party, Liming, Fiesta, forever. Come on and sing my song!
Chorus 2
||: Gb Gbsus2 Gb | Gb Gbsus2 Gb | Ab Absus2 Ab | Ab Absus2 Ab :||
All night long (all night), oooh (all night).
All night long (all night), yes (all night).
All night long (all night), yeah (all night).
All night long (all night), ha (all night).
Middle 8
||: 6/4 Ab Absus4 Ab Ab6 Ab Absus4 Ab | 4/4 Gb | Gb :||
Yeah, once you get started you can’t sit down.
Come join the party, it’s a merry-go-round.
Everyone’s dancing their troubles away, hey.
| 6/4 Ab Absus4 Ab Ab6 Ab Absus4 Ab |
Come join our party, see how we play!
Instrumental
| 4/4 Gbadd9 | N.C | Gbadd9 | N.C Ab |
Breakdown
| N.C | N.C |
Tam bo li de say de moi ya. Yeah, Jambo, jumbo.
| N.C | N.C |
Way to parti o we goin’. Oh, jambali.
| N.C | N.C Abadd9 Ab Abadd9 Ab |
Tam bo li de say de moi ya. Yeah, Jambo, jumbo.
| Ab11 | Gbmaj7 | Fm7 | Fm7 Bbm7 Ab6 |
Oh, O, O, O, yes. We’re gonna have a party! (Yeah… ugh).
Chorus 3
||: Gb Gbsus2 Gb | Gb Gbsus2 Gb | Ab Absus2 Ab | Ab Absus2 Ab :||
All night long (all night), All night, (all night).
All night long (all night), All night, (all night).
All night long (all night), All night, (all night).
All night long (all night). Uh.
Everyone you meet (all night). They’re jamming in the street (all night).
All night long (all night). Yeah, I said.
Everyone you meet (all night). They’re jamming in the street (all night).
All night long! (all night). Feel good! Feel good!
All Night Long’s chords and progressions
I’ve seen very few guitar players get the chords for All Night Long correct. As you can see in the lyrics and chords chart above, it is packed with sus2 chords, resolving to the major triad.
Later on, these are replaced with add9 and sus4 chords, before we go back to sus2 again for the end section.
What makes All Night Long’s chords so interesting is that they are mainly going between IV and V, a progression I listed as #2 on my top 10 chord progressions list.
Hardly ever do we resolve to I or VI, giving us a feeling of not wanting to stop, some may even say, continue all night long!
All Night Long – A modern standard
As one of the ultimate party songs and a must in any professional musician’s repertoire, we find Lionel Richie’s All Night Long.
Released in 1983, it can be found on Lionel’s second solo album and his first major hit as a solo artist.
Prior to this, Lionel had been in the extremely successful Commodores, a band responsible for hits such as Brick House, Three Times A Lady, Boogie Nights, and Easy.
Following the immense success of All Night Long, he released We Are The World, Hello, Dancing On The Ceiling, firmly establishing himself as one of the greatest songwriters of all time.
Released on Berry Gordy’s Motown, All Night Long is perhaps Lionel’s most popular song. When it comes to cover bands, it certainly is the one that has stuck after all these years.
All Night Long chords | Related pages
Five similar tunes with chords and lyrics
Lionel Richie
Starting out with Commodores, Lionel Richie had several worldwide smash-hits in Easy, Brick House, and Three Times A Lady.
As a solo artist, he released Hello, All Night Long, and Dancing On The Ceiling, firmly establishing himself as one of the all-time greats.
Lionel Richie on the web
Motown & Soul
You can learn how to play these Motown & Soul tunes, and in doing so, gain yourself a repertoire so you can jam with, or even join a working band.
Study these tunes in-depth and you will map out the fretboard, master the CAGED system, and learn how to design a rhythm guitar part that works in a band.
