Brick House

This disco classic 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."

As explained in Commodores press materials, when the group needed another song for the album, their guitar/trumpet player 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. Lucky for King, his wife Shirley Hanna-King was also a songwriter, and she wrote the words while he was sleeping. The lyrics were put to a groove the band came up with in a jam session to complete the song.

This song epitomizes the funky side of the Commodores, who could switch between uptempo R&B and easy listening by swapping singers. "Brick House" was sung by their drummer Walter Orange, with Lionel Richie on saxophone. Their softer songs like "Easy" and "Three Times A Lady," used Richie on lead vocals. He enjoyed tremendous adult contemporary success as a solo artist after leaving the Commodores in 1982.