Luther Vandross

American singer born on the Lower East Side of New York on April 20, 1951. Died on July 1, 2005 at the age of 54, two years after suffering a major stroke. Vandross's 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 the late 1970s he was part of a singing quintet consisting former Shades Of Jade members Anthony Hinton and Diane Sumler, Theresa V. Reed and Christine Wiltshire, also called Luther. Around 1978-1979 he also sang for disco projects such as Hot Butterfly, New York City Band and Soirée. In 1981, Luther released his debut solo album Never Too Much (Europe 1981) (opens in a new tab). Between 1982 and 1985, 5 albums were released, all selling over a million copies each. Over the years, he was awarded 5 platinum and 1 double platinum disc, as well as winning 8 Grammy awards.