Deep Album Cuts Vol. 386: Luther Vandross
Kendrick Lamar and SZA's duet "Luther," featuring a sample of Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn's 1982 duet "If This World Were Mine," is currently in its 13th week as the #1 song in America. It's a wonderful thing to see for several reasons, including that, as was shown in the great recent documentary Luther: Never Too Much, Vandross wanted to cross over and get a big #1 pop hit and never quite got there with his own records. Of course, he did get to see his voice sampled on a #1 before he died, on Twista's "Slow Jamz," but it's cool to see an even bigger hit sampling him and named after him.
2. A Lover's Change
3. She's A Super Lady
4. You Stopped Loving Me
5. Better Love
6. Once You Know How
7. Busy Body
8. My Sensitivity (Gets In The Way)
9. Because It's Really Love
10. Come Back
11. She Doesn't Mind
12. Love Is On The Way (Real Love)
13. Please Come Home For Christmas
14. It's Hard For Me To Say Goodbye
15. Dream Lover
16. Like I'm Invisible
17. If I Didn't Know Any Better
Track 1 from Luther by Luther (1976)
Track 2 from This Close To You by Luther (1977)
Tracks 3 and 4 from Never Too Much (1981)
Tracks 3 and 4 from Never Too Much (1981)
Tracks 5 and 6 from Forever, For Always, For Love (1982)
Track 7 from Busy Body (1983)
Track 8 from The Night I Fell In Love (1985)
Track 9 from Give Me The Reason (1986)
Track 10 from Any Love (1988)
Track 11 from Power of Love (1991)
Track 12 from Never Let Me Go (1993)
Track 13 from This Is Christmas (1995)
Track 14 from Your Secret Love (1996)
Track 15 from I Know (1998)
Track 16 from Luther Vandross (2001)
Track 17 from Dance With My Father (2003)
During his '70s run as a backup singer for stars like Roberta Flack and David Bowie, Vandross released two albums with the band Luther. After he became a solo star, Vandross bought the rights to the Luther albums and actively chose to keep them out of print, which I think is kind of a shame because those are solid records that aren't that different from his '80s work. Last year, they were finally reissued and put on streaming services, so it was nice to be able to include a couple tracks. Luther's "Funky Music" was rewritten into the Bowie deep cut "Fascination," and Vandross re-recorded a couple Luther songs on his solo albums, including "Emotion Eyes" on Never Let Me Go.
I included all of Vandross's solo albums except 1994's Songs, which is all covers of big familiar hits. "Better Love" was sampled on the Young Gunz hit "No Better Love." Vandross co-wrote "Better Love" and with keyboardist Nat Adderley Jr. (nephew of jazz legend Cannonball Adderley) and "Busy Body" with bassist Marcus Miller, and those two guys play and/or co-wrote a lot of Vandross's best stuff and Miller co-produced a few albums. By the time I started listening to R&B radio in the '90s, Vandross was in the "Your Secret Love" era and while his voice is amazing in every era, I've really come to prefer his first few albums, when he was just putting that light '80s gloss on his classic soul influences.
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