Valentine's Day would not be complete without reflecting upong the numerous sultry and powerful love ballards that were written, produced, and performed by Luther Ronzoni Vandross, Jr.

Vandross was undeniably one of the most significant vocalists of our time. Since the 1981 platinum-selling release of Never Too Much, Luther’s recording career spanned over two decades and resulted in a lifetime of chart topping hits.

Through the 1980’s, he recorded a string of platinum albums, including Forever, For Always, For Love, Busy Body and The Night I Fell In Love. He scored his first Grammy Award in 1989 with "Here And Now." In 2003 Dance With My Father received 4 Grammy Awards.

In addition, Vandross also earned four Grammys for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance as well as numerous Soul Train, BET, NAACP Image Awards and American Music Awards.

His Beginning

Born in a housing project on the Lower East Side of Manhatan in New York City, Vandross grew up in a musical family that moved to the Bronx when he was thirteen. His sister sang with vocal group The Crests who had a number two hit in the early 1960's with "Sixteen Candles".

Vandross' father died of diabetes when Vandross was eight years old. His life-changing moment came when at the age of thirteen he heard Dionne Warwick sing "Anyone Who Had A Heart."

Vandross was in a vocal group, "Listen My Brother", in high school which once played at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. His first recording credit was as producer of the album Soul Christmas in 1968 and appeared as a vocalist on the Quincy Jones album Best in 1969. He was also a member of a theater workshop at the time and appeared on the first episode of Sesame Street in November 1969.

He attended Western Michigan University for a year, but then dropped out to continue pursuing a career in music.

His next recording credit was on an album by Roberta Flack in 1972. Vandross wrote "Everybody Rejoice", for the 1975 Broadway musical and 1978 movie The Wiz. He also appeared as a choir member in the movie.Having co-written "Fascination" for David Bowie's Young Americans, he went on to tour with him in September 1974

Vandross also sang backing vocals for Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, Carly Simon, Chaka Khan, Donna Summer, Bette Midler, Chic, and Barbara Streisand. During the beginning of his career, Vandross was content to remain mostly in the background, as a producer and backup singer for other artists.

Flack encouraged Vandross into starting his own career. She believed he was an incredible talent who, in addition to his songwriting and production skills, deserved to be heard.

Before his breakthrough, he released two albums with a singing group he formed, also called Luther, on Cotillion Records. The group had a successful single entitled "It's Good for the Soul", although their two albums - the self-titled Luther in 1976 and This Close to You in 1977 - were not successful. Vandross bought back the rights to these albums after the record label dropped the group, preventing their later re-release.

Vandross also wrote and sang commercials jingles during the late 1970s & early 1980s, earning upwards of $600,000 per year around the New York area. He created and often sang jingles for advertising campaigns such  as Kentucky's Fried Chicken's "We Do Chicken Right", NBC's "Proud As A Peacock" and The US Army's, "Be All You Can Be".  

Vandross also voiced a cartoon character named Zack for 3 Saturday morning animated PSA spots for ABC Television called "Zack of All Trades". Vandross continued his successful career as a popular session singer during the late 70's. His lead vocals can be heard on the Gregg Diamond produced single "Hot Butterfly" from Bionic Boogie in 1978 which gained moderate club success.

His Big Break

Vandross eventually made his breakthrough as a guest singer with the group Change. Their 1980 hits, "The Glow of Love" and "Searching" led to a recording contract with Epic Records and in 1981, he made his first solo recording debut with the album Never Too Much, that contained the Burt Bacharach / Hal David song "A House is Not a Home."

The album went double platinum, with the song "Never Too Much" reaching number-one on the R&B charts. This period also marked the beginning of frequent songwriting collaboration with bassist Marc Miller who played on many of the tracks, and would also produce or co-produce a number of tracks for Vandross.

Vandross released a series of successful albums during the 1980s and continued his session work with guest vocals on groups like Charme in 1982. Although the albums were very successful overall, many of his earlier albums made a much bigger impact on the R&B charts. Vandross had more modest success on the pop charts during this time.

Into the 1990s, Vandross built on this success, collaborating with such diverse talents as Dionne Warwick, Gregory Hines, Janet Jackson, and Mariah Carey. Over the course of more than a dozen records, Vandross would rack up an impressive 22 singles on the R&B Top 10, six of which hit No. 1, while seven albums hit No. 1

His Illness and Death 

Vandross had diabetes a disease that ran in his family, as well as hypertension. His weight fluctuated several times over the years, and Vandross had weighed over 300 pounds at his heaviest. His father, Luther Sr., died of complications from diabetes when Luther Jr. was eight years old. Luther Jr.'s two sisters and a brother also predeceased him.

On April 16 2003, Vandross suffered a stroke in his home in Manhattan. Though the cause of Vandross' stroke was not specifically attributed to diabetes, diabetics have been identified as being much more susceptible to strokes than non-diabetics.

He appeared briefly on videotape at the 2004 Grammys to accept his Song of the Year award, he was otherwise never seen in public again. On the videotape on which Vandross appeared, he sent an emotional message that said: "Whenever I say goodbye it's never for long because I believe in the power of love". Vandross died on July 1, 2005 at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey at the age of 54.

Hospital Representaive, Rob Cavanaugh stated that Vandross never recovered from the 2003 stroke. It was reported that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family, friends, and a medical support team. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, a friend of Vandross, described him as "a boy so mellow, so powerful; a boy of rare, rare vintage. We lost Luther very early because of his medical condition, but his legacy will be a powerful legacy."

His funeral was in New York City on July 8, 2005. After two days of viewing, Vandross was laid to rest in George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, NJ.

His Personal life

During Vandross's entire career, he was dogged by questions regarding his sexuality. A lifelong bachelor, his name was never romantically linked in the media with women. Although Vandross never explicitly denied being gay he never publicly acknowledged it either.

He generally attempted to steer questioners away from the issue altogether by saying that his busy lifestyle made marriage difficult and indicated that it wasn't what he wanted.

After his death, an article in Out Magazine was published where several of Vandross' friends such as  comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, confimed that Luther was indeed a very unhappily closeted gay man. In addition, gay novelist, E. Lynn Harris also commented on Vandross' closetedness.

 "Luther could never ever admit what his sexuality was. I felt sorry for him that he never had the chance to be happy.Think of all the great songs he wrote that he could never sing himself. "

 --- E. Lynn Harris in an interview with The Adovcate

"Everybody in the business knew that Luther was gay," says Gene Davis, a veteran television producer who worked with Vandross on several occasions.

"His public and private personae were very different. That had a lot to do with his own sense of discipline. People around him kept his private life private."  Vandross remained defensive, and he often became combative and short-tempered on the many occasions when interviewers directly confronted him about his love life.

 "He was way in [the closet] " [Bruce]Vilanch recalls. "He said to me, ‘No one knows I’m in the life,’ " which is how Vandross referred to his sex life. Vilanch adds that he was one of the very few people to whom Vandross confided his true identity.

---Excerpt from Out Magazine.

 "The famed R&B singer... declined to discuss his personal life, telling reporters that it was "none of your damn business." Indeed, when his biographer Craig Seymour tried repeatedly to broach the subject of his sexuality, the singer told him, "You're trying to zero in on something that you are never ever gonna get....Look at you, just circling the airport. You ain't never gonna land."

----Journalist, John Corvino

"Vandross likely felt that confessing his sexual preference would destroy his crossover ambitions, and he was probably right. But those same crossover ambitions forced him into an exhausting two decades of spin control, warding off AIDS rumors, never able to bring preferred company onto red carpets.

He admitted to biographer Craig Seymour that the taxing offstage maintenance of his open secret reinforced the onstage melancholy that made his records go multiplatinum--a vicious cycle, to be sure.

Journalist Barry Walters tells the secondhand but probable story of how in the middle of the night Luther would seek phone advice from disco legend Sylvester, one of the few out gay black men in popular music."

---- Journalist, Jason King