Luther Vandross has died

[Balta1701]

CNN is reporting that R&B Legend Luther Vandross has passed away.

 

From his Wikipedia entry...

Luther Vandross (born Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. April 20, 1951 in New York, New York) is an African-American R&B singer. He started his singing career in the 1970s as a back-up vocalist for artists such as David Bowie (who discovered him and put him on his Young Americans album), Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Donna Summer, Bette Midler, Chic, and Barbra Streisand. He eventually made his breakthrough as a guest singer with the group Change. The first song of his to become a hit was "Searching."

 

It was only in the 1980s that Vandross' career skyrocketed, with albums such as Forever, for Always, for Love and Give Me The Reason. When Vandross produced his 1989 greatest hits album, The Best of Luther Vandross...The Best Of Love, he ended up hitting the Top Ten for the first time with the ballad Here And Now.

 

More albums followed into the 1990s (beginning with 1991's Power Of Love), and Vandross hit the Top Ten again in 1994 with a duet featuring Mariah Carey, a cover of Lionel Richie and Diana Ross's title song to the film Endless Love. A second greatest hits album, released in 1997, compiled most of his '90s hits.

 

Diabetes runs in his family, according to his mother Mary Vandross. His father Luther Sr. died of complications of diabetes when he was five years old. In 2003, Vandross released the album Dance With My Father in memory of his father. The title track, which was dedicated to the memory of Luther Vandross, Sr., won Luther and his co-writer Richard Marx the 2004 Grammy Award for Song of the Year.

 

He has been inspired by Aretha Franklin, with whom he has produced many albums for. Vandross did many remakes of old songs, such as "Since I Lost My Baby" (originally recorded by The Temptations), "Superstar (Until You Come Back to Me)" (originally recorded by The Carpenters and most recently recorded by Ruben Studdard), "Love Won't Let Me Wait" (originally recorded by Major Harris), "Always and Forever" (originally recorded by Heatwave), "Knocks Me Off My Feet" (originally recorded by Stevie Wonder), and "Lovely Day" (originally recorded by Bill Withers). He later inspired his J Records labelmate Ruben Studdard, the American Idol of 2003 who later updated the song "Until You Come Back to Me."

 

Besides Studdard, Vandross has also inspired other countless artists (both male and female), such as Boyz II Men, Usher, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Brandy. It was with Beyoncé that he recorded yet another cover of a well-known hit song, "The Closer I Get to You" (originally recorded by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway). Another American Idol contestant, Scott Savol, has an affinity for Vandross' music, and he sang three famous songs (including "Superstar" in the show's Cleveland auditions).

 

There has been many questions regarding Vandross' sexuality, mainly due in part of his working relationship with producer Marcus Miller. Rumors have flown since the 1980's saying that Vandross is gay. So far, the rumors have not been proven true. Another musician with a strong connection to Vandross, saxophonist Dave Koz, did come out of the closet in 2004. Vandross was a featured vocalist on Koz's 1999 album, The Dance.

 

He died at the age of 54 on July 1st, 2005.

[Soxy]

RIP, he made good date music--and it sounded like he suffered a lot at the end. Well, thanks for the music Luther!

[Goldmember]

rip...