My Kind Of Music V...Luther Vandross

Here, again, is one of my all time favorite entertainers. When I decided to do this piece on Luther Vandross, it was hard to choose which songs to include, so I chose a few of my favorites, I hope you'll enjoy them.

A little about the man himself. He was born Luther Ronzoni Vandross in 1951, in Manhattan, New York, USA. Because, there's so much information on Vandross, I'll only give a few facts and the rest can be seen either on Wikipedia, under Luther Vandross, or his website.

During Luther's illustrious career he sold over 25 million albums, and won eight Grammy Awards, winning four of those in one year, (2004). He won Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times. Before he came into his own, Luther sang back up for performers such as Diana Ross, Robert Flack, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, David Bowie, just to name a few. Clearly he didn't belong in back of anyone, he rightfully belonged front and center, which is where he stood until his untimely death.

Luther suffered from diabetes, and hypertension, which ran in his family, in fact his father died from complication associated with diabetes when Luther was only eight. In 2003 he suffered a stroke. He died July 1, 2005 of an apparent heart attack, at the age of 54.

Ironically, "Dance With My Father," became the first and only Luther Vandross record to hit #1.

Please take a listen to a few of my favorite Luther Vandross songs, and enjoy.

At the time of his stroke, Luther had just finished the final vocals for the album. He collaborated on this album with his long time friend Richard Marx.

Luther, and the song  Any Love was nominated for Grammys in 1989 for Best R&B Performance Male and Best R&B Song.

On September 20, 2005, the album So Amazing: An All-Star Tribute to Luther Vandross was released.

In 1999 Luther garnered Grammy nominations as Best R&B Vocal Performance-Male, and Best Traditional Vocal Performance, for I Know.

I found no significant information on this song, it just happen to be one that I'm particularly fond of.

Another of my favorites, with nothing of great significantly noteworthy about it.

I don't like the the photo that was used for the song, Religion. But I love the song and I couldn't find another version without this photo.

This song, along with two others that I listed here, came from the same album, one that I listen to regularly. So, that's why they are listed here. A lot of Luther's songs are well known by his fans, and other listeners. However, these three are not as well known. The three are: Are You Mad At Me, Religion, and Isn't There Someone, so I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

In 1992 Luther was nominated and won a Grammy as Best R&B Performance Vocal-Male, and the song Power Of Love won for Best R&B Song.

I hope you've enjoyed this article and the music contained therein.

Even thought Luther Vandross is no longer with us, his music will remain for some time to come, because he made the kind of music that transcends time.