''Luther Vandross'' is the twelfth studio album by American singer

Luther Vandross Luther Ronzoni Vandross Jr. (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sweet and soulful vocals, Vandross has sold over 40 million records worldwide. He achieved eleven consecutive P ...

. It was released by

J Records J Records was an American record label owned and operated by Bertelsmann Music Group until it was transferred to Sony Music Entertainment when they acquired all of BMG’s record labels in late 2008. It was distributed through the RCA Music Gro ...

on June 19, 2001 in the United States. His debut with the label after a brief stint with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

on '' I Know'' (1998), it marked a departure for Vandross who reunited with frequent collaborators Nat Adderley, Jr. and

Marcus Miller William Henry Marcus Miller Jr. (born June 14, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his work as a bassist. He has worked with trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, singer Luther Vandros ...

to work on some songs, but also recruited a wider range of contemporary producers such as

Warryn Campbell Warryn Stafford Campbell, Jr. (born August 21, 1975) is an American record producer. He has worked with a number of gospel, hip hop and R&B artists. Campbell originally got his start as a session musician and producer under the tutelage of DJ Q ...

Shep Crawford Shep Crawford (December 18, 1970) is a Grammy Award-winning American R&B and gospel musician, songwriter, and record producer best known for Whitney Houston's "Same Script, Different Cast", Deborah Cox's "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here", Tamia ...

, Eddie F.,

Darren Lighty Darren Lighty (born April 6, 1969 in Paterson, New Jersey) is an American hip-hop and R&B record producer and songwriter. Lighty got his initial start in the industry as part of the group The Flex, which also included his brother Cliff Lighty ...

Soulshock Carsten Schack (born 1968 in Gug, Denmark) and better known by his stage name Soulshock is a Danish record producer and songwriter. Beginnings Carsten Schack was born in the Aalborg suburb of Gug, the son of economics professor Bent Schack and p ...

, and The Underdogs to contribute material. The album was released to positive reception from music critics, who called it Vandross' best effort in a decade. His rendition of the 1962

Chuck Jackson Chuck Jackson (born July 22, 1937) is an American R&B singer who was one of the first artists to record material by Burt Bacharach and Hal David successfully. He has performed with moderate success since 1961. His hits include "I Don't Want to ...

song " Any Day Now" received a nomination for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance at the

2003 Grammy Awards The 45th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 23, 2003 at Madison Square Garden in New York City honoring the best in music for the recording of the year beginning from October 1, 2001 through September 30, 2002. Musicians accomplishments ...

. Upon release, ''Luther Vandross'' debuted at number six on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 136,000 copies, his best first week sales yet. The album produced three singles, including "

Take You Out "Take You Out" is a song by American recording artist Luther Vandross. It was written by Warryn Campbell, Harold Lilly, and John Smith and produced by the former for Vandross's self-titled twelfth studio album (2001). Released as the album's le ...

" which reached the top 30 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and topped the

Adult R&B Songs The Adult R&B Songs chart (formerly called Adult R&B Airplay) is an airplay chart that is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The chart tracks and measures the airplay of songs played on urban adult contemporary radio stations, whose playl ...

chart.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

editor Jose F. Promis found that ''Luther Vandross'' was "a return to form," and ranked the album "as the singer's best since 1991's critically and commercially lauded '' Power of Love''." He further called it "the singer's most engaging, exciting, and compelling album in years; tshows Vandross in step with changing times, all the while still managing to hold on to the essence of what made him so famous in the first place." ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'' magazine called ''Luther Vandross'' "vintage Vandross" and wrote: "With his new disc, Vandross has finally come up with a collection of songs worthy of his silky, elastic tenor. Sounding as robust as ever despite having dropped 120 lbs. since his last album ..Vandross works his seductive spells on sensitive slow jams .." ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

''s Robert Cherry felt that "Vandross doesn’t need to rely on expletives to stimulate a response. Armed with

G-rated The Motion Picture Association film rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures ...

ballads and a bevy of hot producers who step aside to let the man do his thang, Vandross and his caramel-smooth croon could spark yet another baby boom."

Commercial performance

''Luther Vandross'' debuted and peaked at number six on the US ''Billboard'' 200, selling 136,000 copies in its first week. It marked Vandross' best chart showing since ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' began using

SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

to track sales in 1991. On ''Billboard''s component charts, the album reached number two on the

Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums is a music chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine that ranks R&B and hip hop albums based on sales in the United States and is compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. The chart debuted as Hot R&B LPs in the issue dated J ...

chart, becoming his twelfth solo album to reach the top ten. In total, ''Luther Vandross'' sold 1.2 million copies. The album was eventually certified platinum by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA) for the shipment of over 1 million copies in the United States.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2001 albums J Records albums Luther Vandross albums Albums produced by Clive Davis