Luther Vandross Biography, Photos and Posters

Luther Vandross

Biography

Born: April 20, 1951
City and Country of Origin: New York, New York
Music Training: started playing piano at age 3
Awards: Grammy 2003 Song Of The Year, "Dance With My Father;" Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, "Dance With My Father;" Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals, "The Closer I Get To You;" Best R&B Album, Dance With My Father; 1996 Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, "Your Secret Love;" 1991 Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male, "Power Of Love;" Best Rhythm & Blues Song, "Power Of Love/Love Power;" 1990 Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male, "Here And Now"
Top Recordings: "Never Too Much," "Since I Lost My Baby," "Stop to Love," "Power of Love/Love Power," "The Best Things in Life Are Free," "Endless Love," "Take You Out," "The Closer I Get To You," "Here And Now"
Luther Vandross Biography: Luther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr. was an eight-time Grammy-winning American r&b, soul singer and songwriter. During his career, Vandross sold over 25 million albums and won eight Grammy awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times. He won four Grammy Awards in 2004 including the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for the track "Dance With My Father," co-written with Richard Marx.

Luther was born on Manhattan's Lower East Side, in the Smith Housing Project. At age three he began playing piano. Vandross grew up in a musical family that moved to the Bronx when he was thirteen. His sister sang with the vocal group The Crests who had a number two hit in the early 1960's with "Sixteen Candles." His father died of diabetes when Vandross was eight years old. His life-changing moment came when at the age of thirteen he heard Dionne Warwick sing "Anyone Who Had A Heart."

Vandross was a member of the vocal group, "Shades of Jade," while attending William Howard Taft high school in the Bronx, which once played at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. His first recording credit was as producer of the album Soul Christmas in 1968 and appeared as a vocalist on the Quincy Jones album Best in 1969. As a member of a theater workshop at the time he appeared on the first episode of Sesame Street in November 1968.

He dropped out of Western Michigan University after 1 year to devote more time to his music career.

He wrote "Everybody Rejoice," for the 1975 Broadway musical and 1978 movie The Wiz. In 1974 he toured with David Bowie as a backup vocalist. During this time he also sang backup for many notable artists. He preferred to stay in the background either singing or producing, but Roberta Flack convinced him to pursue his own career as a solo artist.

He was not strapped for money at this time as he also earned a tidy sum singing commercials during the late 70s and early 80s.

His big breakthrough came in 1980 when he sang lead for the studio group Change. The recording produced the r&b hit singles "Searching" and "The Glow of Love." With his name prominently mentioned on th ediscs he was able to secure a solo recording contract with Epic Records. Inspite of this he continued to sing backup for other prominent artists as well as write. Finally in 1981 he released, his first solo album, Never Too Much, which in addition to the title track contained the Burt Bacharach / Hal David song "A House Is Not a Home." The alum went double platinum and reached number 1 on the r&b charts.

During the 80s Vandross released a series of successful albums like: Forever, For Always, For Love, Busy Body, The Night I Fell In Love, and Give Me The Reason; as well as a slew of r&b hit singles like: Superstar," "It's Over Now," "Stop to Love" and "Any Love." His success continued through the 90s and did not end until right after his most successful recording effort "Dance With My Father," won the Grammy for Song of the Year, when on April 16, 2003, just 4 days before his 52nd birthday Vandross suffered a stroke in his Manhattan home. The stroke was attributed to the diabetes, a disease that ran in his family, which he had dealt with for some time. After that he only made only 2 appearances, the first a videotape played at the 2004 Grammys for his acceptance of the Song of the Year award, and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show. On July 1, 2005 Vandross died at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey at the age of 54.
Died: July 1, 2005

Source Wikipedia

Search Site by Artist:

Create search engine for website.