Lionel Richie, Earth, Wind & Fire link up for UBS Arena concert

Two iconic acts from the pop-R&B world, Lionel Richie and the group Earth, Wind & Fire, are coming to Belmont Park’s UBS Arena on July 14, part of their 26-city North American tour.

General-public tickets for the Elmont show go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at livenation.com.

The tour marks the latest burst of activity from the tireless Richie, 76, a singer-songwriter who in the late 1970s shepherded Motown’s the Commodores through a string of soft-rock hits such as "Easy," "Three Times a Lady" and "Sail On." After scoring a No. 1 duet with Diana Ross in "Endless Love" — the title track to the 1981 Brooke Shields drama — Richie embarked on a solo recording career that produced another parade of accessible hits, including "Truly," "All Night Long (All Night)," "Hello" and "Say You, Say Me," which won an Oscar as best original song for the 1985 film "White Nights." For the '85 multiartist charity single "We Are the World," Richie shared writing duties with Michael Jackson.

In addition to releasing the occasional solo album over the past decades, Richie accepted the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017, became a judge on "American Idol" in 2018 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022.

Richie’s contemporaries Earth, Wind & Fire, founded by Maurice White, mixed funk, soul, jazz and pop into a radio-friendly sound with multiracial appeal. The band got an early break performing the score for the 1971 blaxploitation classic "Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song." But its hit-making years didn’t begin in earnest until 1975, when its album "That’s the Way of the World" — also a soundtrack to an all-but-forgotten film of the same name — rocketed to No. 1. It also yielded a No. 1 single, "Shining Star," which earned an R&B Grammy Award. Later in the decade came the rollicking Beatles cover "Got to Get You into My Life," the ebullient party anthem "September" and the disco classic "Boogie Wonderland."

Though White died in 2016, Earth, Wind & Fire is touring as a 12-piece with a three-man horn section, according to the band’s website. Among the members from the classic lineup are lead vocalist Philip Bailey and White’s brother Verdine on bass.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com