Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross (born
April 20,
1951 in
New York, New York) is an
African-American soul singer. He started his singing career in 1980. The first instant hit from him was "Searching." 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 was dedicated to the memory of Luther Vandross, Sr. Vandross has a close musical companion named
Marcus Miller. He was inspired by
Aretha Franklin. He did many remakes of old songs, such as "Since I Lost My Baby" (originally recorded by
The Temptations), "Until You Come Back to Me" (originally recorded by The Carpenters), "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 2002 who later updated the song "Until You Come Back to Me."
Discography
- Never Too Much (1981)
- Forever, For Always, For Love (1983)
- Stop to Love (1986)
- Any Love (1988)
- Power of Love (1991)
- Never Let Me Go (1993)
- Songs (1994)
- This Is Christmas (1995)
- Your Secret of Love (1996)
- I Know (1998)
- Luther Vandross (2001)
- Dance With My Father (2003)