LUTHER VANDROSS: THIS YEAR’S CHIC?

When I did A&R for a major record company, I periodically got demo tapes from Luther Vandross. At the time, Luther was pretty well known in the music business, since he had written "Fascination" with David Bowie, had done backup vocals on the Young Americans album and tour, and was a continually employed session singer. There was always a lot of interest in Vandross's tapes, and many attempts were made to sign him. The one hang-up was that Luther kept insisting on producing himself, and since he had done three unsuccessful albums for the group Luther on Atlantic, some of which he produced, none of the record companies were willing to take that chance.

Then how come Luther Vandross is now one of the most in-demand producers in the business? You know the story, you've seen it with Chic and now with Kashif and Luther. Writer/producer makes the rounds of record companies and is universally shown the door (some record companies are nicer about it than others). Finally, someone soys "yes," and the writer/producer's product rockets to the top. The next week all the very same record companies are feasting the writer/producer in their executive suites and sending for him in long black limousines. It happened with Chic, who peddled the tapes of "Dance Dance Dance" until their shoe leather almost gave out. It happened with Kashif, who tried to place many of the same songs that later became hits for Evelyn King ("I'm In Love") for nearly two years before someone said "yes."

In all fairness, it must be admitted that it wasn't until Luther wrote "Never Too Much" and presented it to CBS, who were at that time "considering" some of his other material, that the wheels really got in motion. The power of a projected hit in the record business is surpassed only by the power of an actual smash. "Never Too Much" was a smash and the album it came from went platinum. Suddenly everyone wanted Luther Vandross to write and produce for them, and he dutifully complied. Last year he wrote and produced a # 1 single—"Jump To It" for Aretha Franklin.

The single was also a substantial crossover and the album went gold. As I write this, Aretha Franklin has her second Vandrosswritten and produced #1 single, "Do It Right. " Luther also produced a top 10 R&B hit, "Instant Love," for Cheryl Lynn and is planning to do an album for Dionne Warwick. In the meantime, his second solo album also went platinum.

Sound familiar? Luther's current status as an industry phenomenon is symptomatic of a recurring cycle in the music business, that of the "hot" producer. Like artists, producers tend to have their "runs," a period when everything they touch literally turns to gold.

In the mid-'60s at Motown, Holland-DozierHolland were the star producers. By the late '60s and early '70s, they had been eclipsed by Norman Whitfield's "psychedelic" experimentation with the Temptations and others and by the Corporation's exact marketing schemes with the Jackson Five. In the early and mid-'70s, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff couldn't come up with a bad tune if they tried and Philadelphia International rode to glory. Right now Leon Sylvers (III) is at the top of everyone's list as the producer to get.

The problems start when the producer is also an artist with his own career to worry about. It's difficult enough to keep coming up with hits for yourself, let alone being responsible for someone else's career. Of course, most producer/artists don't necessarily agree that writing hit songs is a difficult task and their responses to the question of "Why don't you keep those songs for yourself?" usually falls into three categories: 1.) "I wrote that song specifically for this artist because it's something I could never do myself."; 2.) "Oh, I have lots more songs where that came from, I've been writing material for years and have more songs than I could possibly use."; 3.) "They offered me so much money, I couldn't turn it down. Anyway, I've always wanted to work with this artist, I grew up listening to his/her songs and anyway I might as well take the money while I'm hot."

I don't know which of the three Luther would choose. Knowing him, it could probably be some part of number three because I'm sure—like everyone else who's listened to radio in the last 15 years—he adores Aretha Franklin's voice, and, of course, Dionne Warwick is one of the great ladies of song. For a true artist, working with legends like that and getting them to the top ; is said to be every bit as satisfying as getting the hit for themselves. Answer number two assumes that everything the hot producer/writer of the moment has written is worthy of rescue from the shelf (an assumption that is at best naive) and number one, while it has merit, assumes that a song cannot be turned around for anyone's use. If this were true, the publishing end of the record business would go out of business tomorrow.

While I'm very happy to see Aretha Franklin back at No. One, I always wonder what Luther would sound like singing "Jump To It." He could have made it a real macho boast about how he makes his woman jump or how she makes him jump, and, though I admit it would probably have been less effective as a concept, it would most likely still have been a hit. The same is true of "Do It Right." Right now the watch is on to see how long Luther can keep "doing it."

In the past 10 years, we've seen other instances of writer/producers trying to help others, and we've seen how voraciously the business sucks up their talent. After Barry White hit the spotlights, he tried valiantly to churn out albums by himself, Love Unlimited, the Love Unlimited Orchestra and various old buddies who showed up at his door.

He's now recuperating. George Clinton is still in intensive care from trying to maintain Parliament, Funkadelic, Parlet, Bootsy's Rubber Band, the Brides of Funkenstein,

Bemie Worrell, etc. Maurice White eventually had to give up his label in order to concentrate on Earth Wind & Fire, even though for a minute it looked as if he would be able to keep the Emotions and Ramsey Lewis in stride with Fire. Saddest of all is Chic. Do they ever wonder if they would have been better off keeping "We Are Family" and "Upside Down" for themselves instead of giving them to Sister Sledge and Diana Ross?

So far Luther Vandross has been very careful in his choices, and with the caliber of talent he's chosen to work with, has probably gotten as much as he's given. If so, he'll come out stronger and the charts will tell the tale.