Professional singer and songwriter, 1972. Education: Attended Western Michigan University, 1970. In 1972, a song written by Vandross, “Everybody Rejoice, ” was chosen for the Broadway musical The Wiz.Although he received substantial royalties for the composition, the money was not enough to support himself completely, and Vandross continued to work at a variety of ”day At a Glance …īorn Luther Vandross, April 20, 1951, in New York, NY son of Mary Ida (a licensed practical nurse) Vandross. 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. Much of his appeal comes from his emotional approach to music, which is modeled after great female vocalists such as Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick, rather than their male counterparts.īorn in New York City in 1951, Vandross was the youngest of four children. Since then, he has produced a string of nearly one dozen platinum albums and has firmly established himself as one of the leading romantic singers of his generation. A throwback to the smooth soul stylings of the 1960s, Vandross has been a fixture on the rhythm and blues charts since his solo recording debut in 1981. Luther Vandross is a vintage Cadillac among banged-up jalopies in the used car lot of current male pop singers.
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