Luther Vandross was born on the Lower East Side of New York on April 20, 1951. His first big break came in 1975, when he performed as a backing singer on David Bowie's Young Americans album, and received a co-writer credit after his song "Funky Music" was adapted by Bowie to become "Fascination". He was also a backing singer for Bette Midler, Donna Summer and Carly Simon. He was lead singer of the group Change, which had hits such as "A Lover's Holiday", "Searching" and "The Glow Of Love". In 1981, Luther released his debut album Never Too Much. Between 1982 and 1985, five albums were released, all selling over a million copies each. Over the years, he was awarded five platinum and one double platinum disc, as well as winning 8 Grammy awards. He died July 1, 2005 at the age of 54, two years after suffering a major stroke.
A formidable artiste whose career spanned four decades- 70's (as backing singer to David Bowie's Young Americans) and Chic, as well as his own explosion on the decades music with "Superstar, A House is not a Home".
In the 80's a vocalist on early Change singles (Searching) continuing a solo career that perhaps never realized its true potential. In the 80's Luther became an R&B icon with such releases as "Never too Much", "Power of Love", "If only for One Night", "Here and Now", plus many others.
In the 90's he was probably more famous for duets with Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey, among others.
It was an ongoing battle with his weight that may have ultimately proved his undoing. Luther suffered a stroke in 2003, from which he never really recovered, and he passed away on 1st of July 2005.
During his career, Vandross sold 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 Vandross is an icon still today in the world of R&B and American Soul music.
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From Wikipedia:Luther Vandross (April 20, 1951 ? July 1, 2005) was an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five 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.