Editor’s Note: Delving into the archives of pop culture history, “Remember When?” is a CNN Style series offering a nostalgic look at the celebrity outfits that defined their eras.
Remember when Lionel Richie, flanked by 1984’s finest pyrotechnics, closed out the LA Olympic Games wearing an entirely beaded jacket?
It was one of Richie’s first solo gigs after leaving funk and soul group the Commodores two years earlier. “I was just getting my feet wet,” he told the Associated Press in 2020. “I think I had done a couple Vegas shows just to warm up, but nothing like this.” He performed a memorable 9-minute rendition of “All Night Long” to an estimated viewing audience of 2.6 billion, surrounded by a dancing entourage dressed in a mix of white tracksuits and red cheerleading mini dresses. As they circled around the stage, a torrent of fireworks lit up the sky.
While he might now be associated with a more muted wardrobe, particularly his revolving stock of American Idol-approved leather jackets and black Anthony Thomas Melillo black T-shirts, Richie was once a more daring — or at least dazzling — dresser. The unforgettable blue and silver beaded jacket he wore to the 1984 Olympics was cropped at the hips, with a silver piping around the collar and sleeves.
“(The jacket) seems a lot smaller now than it did back then,” Richie told CNN in an email. “But it wasn’t just a piece of clothing, it was a symbol that represented a moment where music and sport collided in a brilliant display of unity and celebration.”
He paired the statement jacket, designed by the late Bill Frank Whitten, with white pleated trousers, a silver sequinned shirt and a matching beaded belt. “The vibrant colors of the custom jacket mirrored the electric energy of the night,” he said.
Whitten was the creator of many of Elton John and Michael Jackson’s renowned stage looks, including Jackson’s iconic single white glove, or the crystal-encrusted socks he wore the first time he moondanced to “Billie Jean” at a Motown concert in 1983. Whitten’s flair for crystals, rhinestones and high-shine materials was subversive to many at first, after a decade ruled by sensual velvet and silk. “When I came into the business the only man in a beaded jacket was Liberace,” Whitten told the LA Times in 1990. “Nobody had tasty beading for men. Nobody.”
The trailblazing garment is now on display for the first time at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; a museum of music memorabilia in Cleveland, Ohio, where it will sit within a new exhibition celebrating the artists of 1984 — from Tina Turner, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen to Lionel Richie.
While the original piece might not be in Richie’s possession, he has a version of it. In an interview with Coveteur magazine in 2018, the global superstar opened his closet to reveal a blue sequined bomber jacket with the words “All Night Long” emblazoned across the back. “It’s really a take from the 1984 Olympic jacket,” he said. “At that particular time, I was launching ‘All Night Long,’ and it just happened to be at the 1984 Olympics, and of course, you just can’t beat the color. We took it and made a bomber jacket out of it, and then, just to be completely camp with it, let’s put ‘All Night Long’ on the back of it!”
Out of all the glittering medals won at the Games that year, perhaps viewers remember Richie’s high-shine closing ceremony performance the most. Stood atop a shimmering gold podium in his luminous beaded jacket, it’s clear Richie was also going for gold.