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.