Luther Vandross

Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Throughout his career, he achieved eleven consecutive RIAA-certified platinum albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide.

Known as the "Velvet Voice", Vandross has been recognized as one of the 200 greatest singers of all time (2023) by Rolling Stone, as well as one of the greatest R&B artists by Billboard.

In addition, NPR named him one of the 50 Great Voices.

Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. 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 child and second 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 in 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 Luther was eight years old.

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.

While in high school, Vandross founded the first Patti LaBelle fan club, of which he was president.

He also performed in a 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.

While he was a member of a theater workshop, Listen My Brother, he was involved in the singles "Only Love Can Make a Better World" and "Listen My Brother".

The group performed in front of tens of thousands at the Harlem Cultural Festival in late August 1969.

Directly afterward, he appeared with the group in the pilot episode and other episodes of the first season of Sesame Street during 1969–1970.

Vandross worked as a backing vocalist in the 1970s, and appeared on albums by artists such as Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Todd Rundgren, Judy Collins, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Ben E. King, Stevie Wonder, and Donna Summer.

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.

Vandross added backing vocals to Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway in 1972, and worked on Delores Hall's Hall-Mark album (1973).

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 (Is a Part of Me)" was re-written as "Fascination" with David Bowie for the latter's Young Americans (1975) album, Vandross went on to tour with him as a back-up 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.

Although the singles "It's Good for the Soul", "Funky Music (Is a Part of Me)", and "The Second Time Around" were relatively successful, their two albums, the self-titled Luther (1976) and This Close to You (1977), 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 will be re-released in 2024.

He later became a lead singer of the group Change, which released the Gold-certified album, The Glow of Love, in 1980 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.

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".

Many of his songs were covers of original music by other artists such as "If This World Were Mine" (duet with Cheryl Lynn), "Since I Lost My Baby", "Superstar", "I (Who Have Nothing)" and "Always and Forever".

Duets such as "The Closer I Get to You" with Beyoncé, "Endless Love" with Mariah Carey and "The Best Things in Life Are Free" with Janet Jackson were all hit songs in his career.

The tribute album So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross, was released shortly after his death.

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 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.

Patricia sang with the vocal group The Crests and was featured on the songs "My Juanita" and "Sweetest One".

He was the recipient of eight Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year in 2004 for a track recorded not long before his death, "Dance with My Father".

In 2021, he was posthumously inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame.