#Play luther vandross songs professional#
He quit after two miserable semesters, more determined than ever to pursue his dream of becoming a professional singer. His grades plummeted, and he became increasingly certain that his future was in the music industry.Īfter high school, Vandross enrolled at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. As he immersed himself more deeply in music, his interest in school waned. He was part of a crowd that liked to hang out in the school hallways and sing doo-wop. As a senior at William Howard Taft High School, Vandross became obsessed with the girl groups of the Motown label, as well as the gospel-based soul sounds being produced by the likes of Aretha Franklin and Cissy Houston. His sister Pat was a member of a doo-wop group called the Crests, whose song "Sixteen Candles" was a fairly big hit when it came out.īy the time he was 13, Vandross was the only child still living at home. His first piano lessons came at the age of three. The Vandross family was a musical one, and from an early age Luther was exposed to the black pop music of the day. Smith housing project in lower Manhattan. His father, an upholsterer, died when Luther was only eight years old, leaving his mother, Mary Ida Vandross, to support the family through her job as a licensed practical nurse. Came from Musical Familyīorn in New York City in 1951, Vandross was the youngest of four children. Much of his appeal comes from his emotional approach to music, which is modeled after great female vocalists such as his friends Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick.
Over the course of his career he has released a string of platinum albums and established himself as one of the leading romantic singers of his generation. With a sound that echoed the smooth soul stylings of the 1960s, Vandross was a fixture on the rhythm and blues charts from his solo recording debut in 1981 until his tragic stroke in 2003. Reproduced by permission.įor many years, Luther Vandross was the vintage Cadillac among the banged-up jalopies in the used car lot of male pop singers.
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