Luther Vandross Never Too Much

2007 four CD box set, the first career-spanning celebration of the amazing artist who has sold over 30 million albums, won eight Grammy Awards and garnered 15 platinum and multi-platinum albums. From his early work as a jingle-singer and sessions with the ground-breaking studio group Change to his superstar collaborations, his voice and vision redefined the art of popular singing. 56 stunning songs on four CDs (over four hours of music) featuring three previously unreleased tracks and two previously unreleased demos. Includes collaborations with Beyonce, Aretha Franklin, Burt Bacharach, Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra and many others. Also contains hard-to-find twelve-inch single mixes, live performances and other surprises.

Luther Vandross was one of the most successful R&B artists of the 1980s and '90s. Not only did he score a series of multi-million-selling albums containing chart-topping hit singles and perform sold-out tours of the U.S. and around the world, but he also took charge of his music creatively, writing or co-writing most of his songs and arranging and producing his records. He also performed these functions for other artists, providing them with hits as well.

Spanning the entirety of Luther Vandross' solo career, Lovesongs is stacked full of quiet storm favorites from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s. All 17 selections are hits, and like practically everything Vandross ever sang, they're all love songs. Lovesongs is the third in a series of Vandross best-of collections released in the wake of his 2005 passing. The first of those compilations, The Ultimate Luther Vandross (2006), covers his greatest hits chronologically, rounding up 16 songs and then tacking on two previously unreleased ones at the end. Then there's Love, Luther (2007), a 56-track box set filled with previously unreleased material for hardcore fans and completists. Like The Ultimate Luther Vandross before it, Lovesongs is a single-disc collection that goes from the singer's first album, Never Too Much (1981), to his last, Dance with My Father (2003).

The 1989 release The Best of Luther Vandross captures Vandross at the peak of his powers, chronicling the '80s, when he reigned as the premier soul crooner of his time. That remains the definitive portrait of Vandross at his creative pinnacle, but 2003's The Essential Luther Vandross extends its reach much further, stopping when Vandross left Epic in 1996. So, it becomes a summary of his time at the label, and it's a thorough one; it may not be sequenced chronologically, but it hits all the big songs.

Luther Vandross - The Essential [Original recording remastered] (2003)
R&B | 2CD | Flac tracks+CUE+LOG+HQ Scans (600 dpi) | 1.08 Gb
Label: EPIC

This collection documents the two-decades-plus recording career of R&B icon Luther Vandross. Even before he started putting out records under his own name, he was a first-call session singer (he's the one who created and sang the chorus hook on David Bowie's "Young Americans," for just one example). Throughout the '80s and the '90s, he was (both commercially and aesthetically) one of the most consistently successful R&B singer/songwriter/producers. This healthy two-disc selection of highlights from the impressive Vandross catalogue moves deftly from heartfelt ballads ("A House is Not a Home") to percolating, poppy numbers ("Never Too Much"), spotlighting the man's mellifluous voice and tasteful phrasing at each turn. This is quite clearly the definitive career summary for this deeply influential R&B titan.

Disco may have been a dirty word as the 70's came to a close but during the 80's its influence on much of this selection helped create some of the greatest dance music recorded. As a poet and philsopher once said, 'Lets Groove Tonight'…..