A declaration of love measured in increments of time. The Commodores recorded it as a ballad built around Lionel Richie's gentle vocal and a melody that became one of the most recognizable of the 70s. he is trying to explain the depth of his devotion by breaking it down into something measurable. Three times a lady... the phrase is his attempt to capture a quality that language cannot really hold. simple, sincere, and so effective that it became a wedding standard almost immediately after its release.

That same declaration gets a Luther Vandross treatment on his 1994 album *Songs*. Where Lionel's original is gentle and unadorned ... his voice carrying the melody with the kind of lightness that made him a star ... Luther approaches the song with the full range of his instrument. The tempo is slower, the arrangement more elaborate, the vocal runs more intricate. Luther's voice does not float the way Lionel's did. It builds, layer by layer, climbing toward the final chorus with the kind of controlled power that only a master vocalist can summon. Where Lionel sang three times a lady as a simple observation, Luther sings it as a verdict reached after careful consideration. The conclusion is the same. The deliberation is what makes it hit.