Brick House

by

The Commodores

Album: Commodores      Released: 1977

US Chart: 5     UK Chart: 32

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This is about a woman with a great body. She is "Built like a Brick House." The original phrase is, "She's built like a brick s--thouse." That's the reason for the pause with the horn fill between the words "brick" and "house." (thanks, Dan - Orlando, FL)

When they needed another song for the album, one of The Commodores, William King, was sent home to write one. He fell asleep trying to think of something, and when he woke up, there was a pad of paper on his chest with the lyrics written on it. His wife wrote them while he was sleeping.

By the time they got to this, the group had recorded the rest of the album and were exhausted. They weren't worried about this being a hit, they just wanted to finish the album.

Lionel Richie was the lead singer of The Commodores at the time. He left in 1982.

This song used the Funk sound The Commodores were known for, but they were on the verge of moving toward Easy Listening music with songs like "Easy" and "Three Times A Lady," which were far less funky but very successful.

In 1991 The Commodores were inducted into The National Association of Brick Distributors' Brick Hall of Fame in recognition of this song. (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England)

In 2003, Richie recorded a new version of this with hard-rocker Rob Zombie for Zombie's horror movie House Of 1000 Corpses. It was an odd pairing, but the singers professed mutual respect for each other. Said Zombie, "The movie is so f--cked that we needed something equally as f--cked to go with it."

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Comments:

This song is somewhat funny. I think of this lady with a really curvy body and a big butt and chest, seriously! XD
- Lucy, Rhinebeck, NY

When the Commodores finished recording this song, no one in the group expected it to be a hit because it was too simple.
- John, Nashville, TN

This song always takes me back to my college days in 1977. This song was played at every single dance, and the band would get all the girls to stand up in front of the stage and "break it down" to this song.
- Rhonda, Poplarville, MS

Rie Sinclair sang this song and lionel Richie sang backup
- aaron, boston, MA

ESPN used to use a different version of this song (not by The Commodores) in ads for their college basketball telecasts. This was a strange choice, considering that in basketball a "brick" is a nickname for a badly misfired shot attempt.
- Joshua, La Crosse, WI

I think this song is awful.
- Heather, Los Angeles, CA

This is one of the best funk songs ever. GO COMMODORES!!
- VooDooCat, Zimbabwe, United States

Hey this is one of the coolest songs I think ever. 1st time I heard it I was 13, I had skipped school that day, my sister came home from work & asked me if I wanted to go for a drive, I said sure, it was in December & this wicked snow storm developed. We were listening to the radio & this song came on, after it ended the announcer came on with snow storm announcements, announcer being so busy played it again by mistake & didn't even notice, we though hey this is cool. Thank you Commorodores you guys are awesome. Years later a co-worker friend of mine heard this song & thought it was by Parliament
- Alf, Kingston, Canada

Lionel Ritchie said they selected the name of "Commodores" by opening up a dictionary and radomly pointing to a word. The first noun they came to would be the group's name. Ritchie jokes that "When I think of how close we came to being called 'The Commodes'...."
- Ken, Louisville, KY

Lionel Ritchie comes from a very religious family. When this song came out, his mother told him that she was so embarrassed that she couldn't face her friends at church!
- Ken, Louisville, KY

this song makes me laugh!!! lol
- Sabrina, Montreal, Canada

Lionel Ritchie was the lead singer for the Commodores at the time, BUT the lead vocalist on the song is their drummer, Walter Orange. Ritchie sang backup on it.
- Horace, western, MD

Hey, one of the Cooomedores's son os on Real World for those who don't know.
- Vanessa, Barstow, CA

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