Vandross had written it a year earlier and knew it was special, talking it up as one of his best. When Song For My Father, which turned out to be the artist's last CD, appeared in 2003, it was the 'personal' title tune that garnered all of the attention.

Besides, the listener could always turn the dial and find a Vandross tune. That was the gap that Southern Soul deejays perceived between the monolithic entertainer and the struggling artists of Southern Soul R&B. In short, for much of his career Luther Vandross personified the kind of 'soul' Southern Soul was a reaction against. Where Vandross thrilled the listener with disco-like crescendos, Southern Soul was simple and direct. Where Vandross was slick, Southern Soul was rough. Nor did the Vandross catalog fit the 'raw' nature of Southern Soul. Not to mention that he was 'up'-all through the eighties-when everyone else in R&B was 'down,' unable to get within a sniff of a commercial recording contract. Vandross was the aural equivalent of a gleaming super-stretch limousine and the epitome of what would come to be called 'urban' R&B. That's an inconceivable amount to a Southern Soul (or most any other) musician. Let's not forget that we're talking about a performer who sold over twenty-five million records. Their reasons were both economic and stylistic.

And forgotten in the homage to his passing is the undeniable fact that prior to the release of 'Think About You' and 'Dance With My Father' ( Dance With My Father, J-Records, 2003), Southern Soul deejays by and large ignored Luther Vandross.

Vandross was the current generation's Johnny Mathis his catalog defined what the next generation would come to call 'midnight soul.'Д«ut let's face it: it wasn't Southern Soul. His music was as familiar and transparent as the air the black community breathed. For so long, in other words, there was no reason to play him on a cutting-edge Southern Soul outlet. Still, the success of Vandross' 'Think About You' is unique and unexpected.ДЄlong with Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder, Prince and a handful of other black performers who bridged the music of the sixties and seventies with the music of the nineties and 00's, Luther Vandross was a household name for a generation. Kelly, whose 'Step In The Name Of The Love' has become just the latest in a string of crossover hits (into Southern Soul) for him. The overwhelming popularity of 'Think About You' on the Stations of the Deep South is even more surprising than, for example, the chitlin' circuit chart-busting of R. Like Freddy Jackson's 'Dream On' title tune from the King Of New York soundtrack, or Bobby 'Blue' Bland's genre-crashing rendition of 'What A Wonderful World,' 'Think About You' has become the de facto tribute record for the late Luther Vandross, putting the towering R&B artist front and center on the only stage he perhaps had left to conquer: the funky, overlooked charts of the chitlin' circuit. Nice writes this at the end of December 2006, 'Think About You' (from the 2003 Luther Vandross album Dance With My Father) is still playing on prime time drive time in the heart of the chitlin' circuit.Дoes its longevity stem from its understated, Southern Soul-like production, or its sweet Southern Soul mid-tempo rhythm, or is it the soft, atmospheric 'synth' arrangement that causes Southern Soul listeners to constantly crave more? 'Think About You.' Why has this admittedly lovely song-pop in nature, pop in essence-become such a durable hit on bluesy Southern Soul stations? As your Daddy B. Nice's Top 100 Countdown: The New Generation (Chart In Progress)Д¬omposed by James Porte and Luther Vandross Luther Vandross - Southern Soul Music Artist - Southern Soul RnB

Luther vandross greatest hits playlist