The great soul singer, producer and interpreter of classic material Luther Vandross would’ve been sixty-three years old this month. Had he lived, the velvet-toned vocalist might’ve had a major celebration where he would be surrounded by those he loved, especially the Black pop divas (Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle and Dionne Warwick) who he grew-up listening to and adoring.

Although the first record he ever bought was the Isley Brother’s classic “Twist and Shout,” it was the pop music of female vocalists, as well as their dramatic productions and fierce arrangements, that fed Vandross’ creativity, propelled his passion and inspired him to become more than just a studio voyeur looking over the greener grass.
Growing-up in the Smith Houses projects on lower Manhattan, Luther began, as do we all, as a fan. “My friends and I would sit in our apartments listening to music to music and daydreaming about the singers we loved,” Vandross explained to me in 1996, the first time we met. Writing the bio for the then-new Your Secret Love album, we were in a luxurious hotel penthouse in midtown Manhattan.

“We wondered what it was like backstage at an Aretha Franklin concert or wonder if Diana Ross and Aretha, since they were both from Detroit, went to lunch together and then got their nails done. That would be the kind of stuff going through our minds.”

Although Vandross was the President of the Patti LaBelle fan club, and even had the pleasure of meeting his idol at the Apollo, it was witnessing the understated power of Dionne Warwick that really knocked him off of his feet. “She was the opening act for the Shirelles, but I’d never heard of her before,” he said. “She was striking and, when she opened her mouth to sing, I was like a young painter seeing Picasso or Matisse for the first time. Dionne Warwick went on stage and, from that moment, I knew what I wanted to do with my life.”

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