Luther Vandross
Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. was an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, and record producer. Over his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA-certified platinum albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide. Vandross was recognized by Rolling Stone as one of the 200 greatest singers of all time and was named one of the greatest R&B artists by Billboard. NPR also included him among its 50 Great Voices. He won eight Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year in 2004 for "Dance with My Father". He has been inducted into both the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame and the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Vandross began his music career in the late 1960s performing at the Apollo Theater in New York City as part of a local musical ensemble. The group later appeared on the television show Sesame Street in the early 1970s. He eventually established himself as a sought-after backing vocalist, contributing to albums by Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Todd Rundgren, Evelyn "Champagne" King, Judy Collins, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Ben E. King, Stevie Wonder, Laura Branigan and Donna Summer. In 1980, he served as the lead vocalist for the post-disco group Change on their Gold-certified album The Glow of Love, released on Warner/RFC Records.
After Vandross left the group, he was signed to Epic Records as a solo artist and released his debut solo album, Never Too Much, in 1981. In 1982, he was credited as the primary producer on Aretha Franklin's album Jump to it, which topped the Billboard R&B Albums chart. His hit songs include "Never Too Much", "Here and Now", "Any Love", "Power of Love/Love Power", "I Can Make It Better", and "For You to Love". He also recorded several covers of songs originally performed by other artists, including "Since I Lost My Baby", "Superstar", "I ", and "Always and Forever".
Vandross collaborated on several notable duets, including "The Closer I Get to You" with Beyoncé, "Endless Love" with Mariah Carey, and "The Best Things in Life Are Free" with Janet Jackson of which the latter two were hit songs in his career. The tribute album So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross was released shortly after his death. In 2024, Kendrick Lamar and SZA released the chart-topping single "Luther", paying homage to Vandross and sampling his rendition of "If This World Were Mine", a duet with Cheryl Lynn. In January of that same year, he was the subject of the documentary Luther: Never Too Much, which chronicles his life, career, and legacy.
Early life
Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr., who was of African American heritage, was born on April 20, 1951, at Bellevue Hospital, in the Kips Bay neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. His birth occurred concurrently with General Douglas MacArthur's ticker-tape parade throughout the same city. He was the fourth and youngest child as well as the younger son of Mary Ida Vandross and Luther Vandross Sr. His father was an upholsterer and singer, and his mother was a nurse. Vandross was raised on Manhattan's Lower East Side in the Alfred E. Smith Houses public housing development. At the age of three, having his own phonograph, Vandross taught himself to play the piano by ear.His father died of diabetes when Vandross was eight years old. In 2003, Vandross wrote the song "Dance with My Father" and dedicated it to him; the title was based on his childhood memories and his mother's recollections of the family singing and dancing in the house. His family moved to the Bronx when he was nine. His older sisters, Patricia "Pat" and Ann, began taking Vandross to the Apollo Theater and to a theater in Brooklyn to see Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin perform. Patricia sang with the vocal group The Crests and was featured on the songs "My Juanita" and "Sweetest One".
Vandross graduated from William Howard Taft High School in the Bronx in 1969, and attended Western Michigan University for one and a half semesters before dropping out to continue pursuing a career in music.
Career
While in high school, Vandross founded the first Patti LaBelle fan club, of which he was president. He formed quartet with other students, and won a summer talent show. Because each of the members attended different schools, they broke up, and Vandross formed a new group, Shades of Jade, that once played at the Apollo Theater. During his early years in show business, he appeared several times at the Apollo's famous amateur night.Vandross, along with some members of his previous two groups, joined Listen My Brother, a workshop group based at the Apollo Theater. They released one single "Only Love Can Make a Better World". The group performed in front of tens of thousands at the Harlem Cultural Festival in late August 1969. Directly afterward, the group appeared in the pilot episode and other episodes of the first season of Sesame Street during 1969–1970.
After graduating from high school in 1969, Vandross left New York to attend University in Michigan. However, he dropped out and returned home and attempted to enter the music industry.
1970s: Backing vocalist and first groups
Vandross added backing vocals to Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway in 1972, and worked on Delores Hall's Hall-Mark album. He sang with her on the song "Who's Gonna Make It Easier for Me", which he wrote, and he contributed another song, "In This Lonely Hour". After his song "Funky Music " was re-written as "Fascination" with David Bowie for the latter's Young Americans album, Vandross went on to tour with him as a backing vocalist in September 1974. Vandross wrote "Everybody Rejoice/A Brand New Day" for the 1975 Broadway musical The Wiz.Vandross also sang backing vocals for artists including Roberta Flack, Chaka Khan, Ben E. King, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, David Bowie, Cat Stevens, Gary Glitter, Ringo Starr, Sister Sledge, and Donna Summer, and for the bands Mandrill, Chic and Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Before his solo breakthrough, Vandross was part of a singing quintet named Luther in the late 1970s. The quintet consisted of former Shades of Jade members Anthony Hinton and Diane Sumler, as well as Theresa V. Reed, and Christine Wiltshire, signed to Cotillion Records. Although the singles "It's Good for the Soul", "Funky Music ", and "The Second Time Around" were relatively successful, their two albums, the self-titled Luther and This Close to You, which Vandross produced, did not sell enough to make the charts. Vandross bought back the rights to those albums after Cotillion dropped the group, preventing them from being re-released. Both albums were re-released in 2024.
Vandross also wrote and sang commercial jingles from 1977 until the early 1980s, for companies including NBC, Mountain Dew, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King, and Juicy Fruit. He continued his successful career as a popular session singer during the late 1970s. His aforementioned song "Everybody Rejoice", sometimes called "A Brand New Day", was used in a Kodak commercial during the mid-1970s.
In 1978, Vandross sang lead vocals for Gregg Diamond's disco band, Bionic Boogie, on the song titled "Hot Butterfly". Also in 1978, he appeared on Quincy Jones's Sounds...and Stuff Like That!! most notably on the song "I'm Gonna Miss You in the Morning" along with Patti Austin. Vandross also sang with the band Soirée and was the lead vocalist on the track "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"; he also contributed background vocals to the album along with Jocelyn Brown and Sharon Redd, each of whom also saw solo success. Additionally, he sang the lead vocals on the group Mascara's LP title song "See You in L.A." released in 1979. Vandross also appeared on the group Charme's 1979 album Let It In.
1980s: Change and solo breakthrough
Vandross made his career breakthrough as a featured singer with the vaunted pop-dance act Change, a studio concept created by French-Italian businessman Jacques Fred Petrus. Their 1980 hits, "The Glow of Love" and "Searching", featured Vandross as the lead singer. In a 2001 interview with Vibe, Vandross said "The Glow of Love" was "the most beautiful song I've ever sung in my life." Both songs were from Change's debut album, The Glow of Love.Vandross was originally intended to perform on their second and highly successful album Miracles in 1981, but declined the offer as Petrus didn't pay enough money. Vandross's decision led to a recording contract with Epic Records that same year, but he also provided background vocals on "Miracles" and on the new Petrus-created act, the B. B. & Q. Band in 1981. During that year, Vandross jump-started his second attempt at a solo career with his debut album, Never Too Much. In addition to the hit title track it contained a version of the Bacharach & David song "A House Is Not a Home".
The song "Never Too Much", written by Vandross, reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. This period also marked the beginning of a songwriting collaboration with bassist Marcus Miller, who played on many of the tracks and would also produce or co-produce several tracks for Vandross. The Never Too Much album was arranged by Vandross's high school classmate, Nat Adderley Jr., a collaboration that would last throughout Vandross's career.
Vandross released a series of successful R&B albums during the 1980s and continued his session work with guest vocals on groups like Charme in 1982. Many of his earlier albums made a bigger impact on the R&B charts than on the pop charts. During the 1980s, two of Vandross's singles reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B charts: "Stop to Love", in 1986, and a duet with Gregory Hines, "There's Nothing Better Than Love". Vandross was at the helm as producer for Aretha Franklin's Gold-certified, award-winning comeback album Jump to It. He also produced its follow-up album, 1983's Get It Right.
In 1983, the opportunity to work with his main musical influence, Dionne Warwick, came about with Vandross producing, writing songs, and singing on How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye, her fourth album for Arista Records. The title track duet reached No. 27 on the Hot 100 chart, while the second single, "Got a Date" was a moderate hit.
Vandross wrote and produced "It's Hard for Me to Say" for Diana Ross from her Red Hot Rhythm & Blues album. Ross performed the song as an a cappella tribute to Oprah Winfrey on her final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show. She then proceeded to add it to her successful 2010–12 "More Today Than Yesterday: The Greatest Hits Tour. Vandross also recorded a version of this song on his Your Secret Love album in 1996.
In 1985, Vandross first spotted the talent of Jimmy Salvemini, who was 15 at the time, on Star Search. He thought Salvemini had the perfect voice for some of his songs and contacted him. He was managed by his brother, Larry Salvemini. A contract was negotiated with Elektra Records for $250,000 and Vandross agreed to produce the album. He contacted longtime friends–Cheryl Lynn, Alfa Anderson, Phoebe Snow and Irene Cara–to appear on the record. Jimmy Salvemini's album, Roll It, was released in 1986.
Vandross also sang the ad-libs and background vocals, along with Syreeta Wright and Philip Bailey, in Stevie Wonder's 1985 hit "Part-Time Lover". In 1984, he voiced a cartoon character named Zack for ABC's Zack of All Trades, a three Saturday morning animated PSA spots. He sang as part of the background chorus on Bowie's 1986 single "Underground", from the movie Labyrinth.
The 1989 compilation album The Best of Luther Vandross... The Best of Love included the ballad "Here and Now", his first single to chart in the Billboard pop chart top ten, peaking at No. 6.