Born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City in Smith Housing Project. At age three he began playing the piano. Vandross grew up in a musical family that moved to the Bronx when he was thirteen. His sister Patricia sang with vocal group The Crests who had a number two hit in 1958 with "Sixteen Candles", though she left the group before the recording. Vandross' father died of diabetes Read more...

Luther Vandross finally made his long desired career breakthrough as a featured singer with the vaunted pop-dance act Change, a studio concept created by French-Italian businessman Jacques Fred Petrus. Their 1980 hits, "A Lover's Holiday" (by Romani and Willoughby), "The Glow of Love" (by Romani, Malavasi and Garfield) and "Searching" (by Malavasi), of which Vandross sang on all three, opened up Read more...

Vandross had diabetes, a disease that ran in his family, as well as hypertension. On April 16, 2003, just four days before his 52nd birthday, Vandross suffered a stroke in his home in Manhattan. Though the cause of Vandross' stroke was not specifically attributed to diabetes, diabetics have been identified as being much more susceptible to strokes than non-diabetics.[citation needed]

He appeared Read more...