And We Danced

Equally comfortable with an uptempo Dance tune or an emotional love ballad, Luther Vandross is one of the few male solo survivors in the Dance music community. Luther first made an impact in the clubs during the peak days of Disco and has most recently enthralled audiences with recordings in the new millennium.

Working as both a backup singer and cowriting the song Fascination, Luther Vandross was an integral part of David Bowie’s Philly soul project, Young Americans, in 1975. Luther continued to work as a session singer in high demand through the rest of the 1970’s. His work included lending vocals to the Chic albums C’est Chic and Risque. Dance music audiences began to take notice when Luther’s vocals were featured on the 1980 disco chart-topping album Glow Of Love by the group Change. Luther Vandross was the featured vocalist on the key tracks Glow Of Love and Searching. Luther can also be heard providing vocals for chart hits by the groups Hi-Gloss and Roundtree.

Buoyed by his success on Glow Of Love, Luther left Change and signed with Epic Records for his first solo album. Never Too Much was released in 1981 and the lead single Never Too Much quickly landed in the Dance top 5. The album also featured a gorgeously orchestrated Bacharach and David ballad A House Is Not a Home which pointed toward future work on ballads and love songs. Luther’s next two albums, 1982’s For Ever, For Always, For Love and 1983’s Bad Boy focused more squarely on his mastery of soulful love songs. However, at the same time he began to exercise his skills behind the scenes as producer. The first fruit of this endeavor was production on Aretha Franklin’s triumphant return to clubs with Jump To It.

In 1985 Luther Vandross returned to the Dance chart as a solo artist with the minor hit It’s Over Now. He also assisted with background vocals on Stevie Wonder’s number one smash Part-Time Lover and vocal arrangements for Patti Austin’s album Gettin’ Away With Murder which featured the hit Honey For the Bees. Another solo hit, Stop To Love reached the Dance chart in 1987 while his vocal arrangements helped Ava Cherry, a fellow backup singer from the David Bowie Young Americans project, place two singles in the Dance top 20 from her Picture Me album.

By the end of the 80’s, Luther was a superstar in the Pop, R&B and Dance music worlds. 1989’s She Won’t Talk To Me from the Any Love album was his first appearance as a solo artist in the Dance top 20 since his solo debut with Never Too Much. 1991’s smash album Power Of Love featured a towering performance of Sylvester’s classic I (Who Have Nothing) with Weather Girl, and former Sylvester backup singer Martha Wash. Luther’s triumphant return to the top 5 of the Dance chart came in 1992 with the assistance of Janet Jackson on their duet The Best Things In Life Are Free.

Luther’s commercial clout began to fade through the remainder of the 1990’s. Heaven Knows was a minor Dance hit in 1993. 1994’s Songs album of covers and the incorporation of rap on 1996’s Your Secret Love failed to excite audiences. Consequently, the success of his 2001 album simply titled Luther Vandross was a pleasant surprise. It not only returned him to the Pop top 40, but also to the top 5 of the Dance chart with a remix of the ballad Can Heaven Wait. After suffering from a stroke, Luther released 2003’s Dance With My Father album which topped both Pop and R&B charts. Blessed with one of the most powerful, emotive voices in popular music and well-honed skills at vocal arrangement, Luther remains a master craftsman in working with the human voice across Dance, Pop,
and R&B music.