Penny Loverby Lionel Richie

Penny Lover is the title of the fifth and final single released from Lionel Richie’s multi-platinum and Grammy Award-winning 1983 album ‘Can’t Slow Down’.

The arrangement is done in the key of Ab, and the obvious choice for the guitar would be to play it with chord shapes in the key of G with the capo on the 1st fret, or wherever it might fit the range of your voice.

We take a close look at the chords, the strumming and of course the progression and how it is arranged.One of the challenges might be the syncopated chord changes and overall feel. You want to strum this gently.

Another challenge is to take it to the next level and include some melody notes, like for example immediately in the intro, as well as several other spots in the song. This takes quite a bit more effort from both hands and in particular the strumming, flat picking one. It sure is worth it to give it a try.