Nearly 20 years after his death, it’s easy to forget the ways that R&B legend Luther Vandross impacted pop music. His suavely rhythmic hits, many from the Eighties, don’t get the same amount of airplay as new-wave classics of the same period. It’s also easy to forget how complex and mysterious his life was: For most of his career, Vandross was dogged by rumors about his sexuality and the reasons for his ongoing weight issues.
He was both in our faces and behind a curtain at the same time. Director Dawn Porter’s new doc Luther: Never Too Much sifts through the music, image and legacy of the pop star who died of a stroke, at age 54, in 2005. Mariah Carey, Dionne Warwick, Jamie Foxx , Clive Davis, and Richard Marx are among the talking heads in the film (currently in theaters).
Here are a few things we learned (or were reminded of) in the film. Long before his first hits, you probably heard Vandross before you even knew it was him. One of the real finds in Luther: Never Too Much is footage of Vandross, then an up-and-coming studio backup singer, working with Bowie during his Young Americans era.
We hear the now-familiar story of Bowie overhearing Vandross suggesting a “young Americans, young Americans...
” vocal part for that song, and how Bowie took him up on the suggestion. Vandross’ time with Bowie, on Young Americans and the subsequent Diamond Dogs tour, is well documented. But Vandross’ backup-singer work was omnipresent: He sang on albums by Chic and Sister .
