RAMA, Ont. - Tell anyone you’re going to a Lionel Richie concert and they’ll start singing his songs back to you.

And for good reason.

Richie was a major hitmaker during the ‘70s and ‘80s - first with the funk-soul group The Commodores and later as a more mainstream pop-R&B solo artist.

“There’s two kinds of people who come to my concerts -- those that come to hear me sing, those who come to hear themselves sing,” acknowledged Richie, 60, on Monday night during the first of two back-to-back sold-out concerts at Casino Rama.

So Richie, who hasn’t enjoyed the same success in more recent years including this year’s solo release, Just Go, and is known more these days as the father of tabloid target Nicole Richie, took fans through mostly the first half of his career despite opening with a 2004 solo tune, Just For You.

“What’s going on brothers?” said Richie, who bounded on stage looking trim in black leather pants and a black tuxedo shirt and sounding in good, strong voice for the next 90 minutes.

“Let’s get started, we’ve got songs,” he added, and wasn’t kidding.

It was pretty much the hits from start to finish.

There were Commodores classics like Easy, Three Times A Lady, You Are, Sail On, Sweet Love, Lady, alongside such solo guilty pleasures as Penny Lover, Ballerina Girl, and Hello (sadly missing in action was Say You, Say Me), and more palatable solo hits like Running With The Night.

Richie even sat down at the piano alone to sing the Commodores ballads Still and Oh No before being rejoined by his tight-sounding five-piece band for his own solo hit, Stuck On You.

And when it came to singing Endless Love, his famous duet with Diana Ross, he had all the females in the audience do her part.

“Who needs Diana?” an impressed Richie said afterwards.

But it was Richie’s solo dance tunes, Dancing On The Ceiling -- injected with a snippet of Van Halen’s Jump - All Night Long, and the Commodores signature hip wigglers, Brick House and Fire that got the biggest responses of the night.

“I’ve haven’t seen dancing like that since 1983, 1984,” said Richie of the reaction to Dancing On The Ceiling.

The Alabama native, who claimed to have been off for a month and a half but didn’t show any rustiness because of it, seemed to be genuinely wowed by the crowd response, particularly given the snowy weather and freezing temperatures outside.

“I woke up this morning and went out to just get a breath of fresh air and my afro froze -- everything froze,” he joked. “This is not even cold yet, they say. In the face of disaster, you have driven in from the blizzard and the cold, and you want to hear love songs all night. We’re all freezing to death, and you are all having the best damn time of your lives.”

Among the many fans who had gathered at the front of the stage, one gave him a single white rose, another offered up her scarf for him to wipe his brow and yet another had an vinyl album cover for him to autograph.

“It’s not, ‘Oh my God,’ it’s Lionel Richie,” he joked to one enthusiastic woman at the front.

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SET LIST

Just For You

Penny Lover

Easy My Love

Ballerina Girl

Running With The Night

Still

Oh No

Stuck On You

Dancing On The Ceiling

Three Times A Lady

You Are

Sail On

Fancy Dancer

Sweet Love

Lady

Endless Love

Brick House/Fire

ENCORE

Hello

All Night Long