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Today is the day! Luther Vandross’ HIDDEN GEMS is available everywhere now! This collection of 15 seldom-heard deep album tracks and movie soundtrack songs includes liner notes written by Luther’s life-long collaborator Fonzi Thornton. HIDDEN GEMS spans the full timeline of Luther’s major label recording career, from the 1970s to the new millennium.

Go to AOL Music today to stream the complete Luther Vandross Hidden Gems album one day before it’s official release! http://music.aol.com/new-releases-full-cds/#/5

Fonzi Thornton has paid tribute to his late friend and collaborator, Luther Vandross, by helping to choose some special tracks for Luther’s Hidden Gems album, available everywhere April 17th. Friends and collaborators since their teenage years, Thornton helped produce the forthcoming album, which contains a treasure trove of cuts.

When you were both teenagers, you and Luther Vandross became friends. Can you talk a bit about those days and how you and he honed your talents over time?

I lived in the Johnson projects in East Harlem, New York and his sister Ann lived across the street from me. [Luther and I] were actually introduced by a girl in church who went to school with him. I knew him from the time we were both 14 years old.

Luther was a visionary, even when we were young. When I first met him, he had a vocal group called The Shades of Jade, a very funny name. It was a group he was developing. They would sing at amateur night at The Apollo just trying to get discovered. Luther was very advanced. He was always that same singer, that same interpreter. We [eventually] sang [together] in Shades of Jade, myself and two other singers.

Read more at DigitalJournal.com.

15 DEEP ALBUM TRACKS PLUS OUT-OF-PRINT MOVIE SOUNDTRACK SONGS FROM ONE OF NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO’S “50 GREAT VOICES”

Original compositions plus covers of “The Impossible Dream,” “Goin’ Out Of My Head,” and “I (Who Have Nothing)” duet with Martha Wash

Available everywhere April 17, 2012, three days prior to Luther’s birthday

The overwhelming talent of the late Luther Vandross (1951-2005), eight-time Grammy Award®-winning singer extraordinaire, songwriter, producer, arranger, and soul music visionary, are the focus of HIDDEN GEMS. This new collection of 15 seldom-heard deep album tracks and movie soundtrack songs will arrive in stores on April 17, 2012, just three days prior to Luther’s birthday on April 20. The collection is released by Epic/Legacy, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT.

In the liner notes written by Luther’s life-long collaborator Fonzi Thornton, HIDDEN GEMS is described as “a deeper dig into the musical treasure trove of Luther Vandross, uncovering lesser known songs and performances that he endowed with the same passion and love as his well known repertoire.” The album was compiled and produced in association with Luther’s family, his niece Seveda Williams and cousin Brenda Shields, in order to present “an album compilation with a different theme his fans might enjoy, a collection which highlights Luther’s ideas of song selection and how they complement THAT VOICE.” HIDDEN GEMS will allow casual listeners to discover songs they never heard, and devoted fans the opportunity to re-live what they loved about Luther Vandross.

Luther has 15 RIAA platinum and multi-platinum albums to his credit in the U.S. and worldwide sales of more than 30 million records. In 2010, National Public Radio included Luther in its “50 Great Voices” series.

HIDDEN GEMS spans the full timeline of Luther’s major label recording career, from the 1970s to the new millennium. These range from a track from his Never Too Much solo album for Epic in 1981 (“You Stopped Loving Me”); to a pair of tracks from Dance With My Father, his final studio album in 2003 (which received four Grammy Awards), namely “Once Were Lovers,” with a harmonica solo by Stevie Wonder, and “Buy Me A Rose.” The latter was sung by Luther for Oprah Winfrey when she visited him for his final television performance.

The bulk of HIDDEN GEMS is devoted to Luther’s 15-year tenure at Epic Records from 1981 to 1996, which produced nearly a dozen original studio albums, six of which are represented here:

• Never Too Much (1981, “You Stopped Loving Me”);
• Forever, For Always, For Love (1982, “Once You Know How”);
• Any Love (1988, “I Know You Want To”);
• Power Of Love (1991, “I (Who Have Nothing),” a duet with Martha Wash from the Weather Girls, a remake of the 1963 Leiber & Stoller-penned classic by Ben E. King, that was made into a duet by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway in the ’70s);
• Songs (1994, “The Impossible Dream,” the timeless standard from Broadway’s Man Of La Mancha);
• Your Secret Love (1996, “Goin’ Out Of My Head,” with its swirling string arrangement by Nat Adderley, a remake of the 1964 pop hit by Little Anthony & the Imperials, written by Teddy Randazzo); and also:
• One Night With You: The Best Of Love, Volume 2 (1997, “When You Call On Me (Baby That’s When I Come Runnin’),” written and produced by R. Kelly).

Two of the tracks on HIDDEN GEMS are songs that Luther recorded for original motion picture soundtracks, whose albums are long out-of-print:

• “Heart Of A Hero” (from 1992’s Hero, starring Dustin Hoffman), and
• “The Thrill I’m In” (from 1995’s Money Train, starring Wesley Snipes)

“Are You Using Me?” is an exciting dance floor track that Luther co-wrote with Thornton, ‘Little’ Louie Vega, and Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez, which originally appeared on I Know, an album released by Luther on Virgin Records in 1998.

Luther’s self-titled debut album for Clive Davis’ J Records in 2001 was a #2 R&B and #6 pop success and is represented on HIDDEN GEMS by “I’d Rather” (composed by longtime collaborator Shep Crawford), and “Like I’m Invisible” (co-written with Thornton). From the Japanese version of I Know comes “You Really Started Something” (co-written with Denise Rich and Junior Vasquez).

Luther’s final studio album became a classic for every generation. Dance With My Father, released in 2003 on J Records, was honored with four Grammy Awards® spanning 2003 and 2004. They comprised Best R&B Album, Song Of the Year and Best R&B Song for its title tune “Dance With My Father,” and Best R&B Vocal by a Duo/Group for Luther’s duet with Beyoncé on ‘The Closer I Get to You,” (a cover of the Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway classic). From Dance With My Father, HIDDEN GEMS reprises “Once Were Lovers” (co-written with Thornton).

“When he hit the world stage he wasn’t trying to be the next Sam Cooke, or Peabo Bryson or Frank Sinatra,” Thornton’s liner notes to HIDDEN GEMS conclude. “He was just brilliantly intuitive about what songs showcased the dynamics of his vocal ability and radiated soul in a way that has not been heard in R&B and pop music before or since. He didn’t have to sweat or shout or do splits – he opened his heart and left us beautiful Diamonds, Rubies and Emeralds of Music.”

HIDDEN GEMS by LUTHER VANDROSS (Epic/Legacy 88699 19682 9 2 2)
Selections:
1. When You Call On Me (Baby That’s When I Come Runnin’) (I)
2. Once You Know How (B)
3. I Know You Want To (C)
4. Once Were Lovers (M)
5. You Stopped Loving Me (A)
6. The Impossible Dream (F)
7. Are You Using Me? (J)
8. Goin’ Out Of My Head (H)
9. The Thrill I’m In (G)
10. Heart Of A Hero (E)
11. Buy Me A Rose (M)
12. I (Who Have Nothing) (duet with Martha Wash) (D)
13. I’d Rather (K)
14. Like I’m Invisible (K)
15. You Really Started Something (L)

Album index:
(A) – from Never Too Much (Epic Records, released 1981)
(B) – from Forever, For Always, For Love (Epic, released 1982)
(C) – from Any Love (Epic, released 1988)
(D) – from Power Of Love (Epic, released 1991)
(E) – from Hero soundtrack (Sony Music, released 1992)
(F) – from Songs (Epic, released 1994)
(G) – from Money Train soundtrack (Sony Music, released 1995)
(H) – from Your Secret Love (Epic, released 1996)
(I) – from One Night With You: The Best Of Love, Volume 2 (Epic, released 1997)
(J) – from I Know (Virgin Records, released 1998)
(K) – from Luther Vandross (J Records, released 2001)
(L) – from Luther Vandross (Japanese Version, RCA Records, released 2001)
(M) – from Dance With My Father (J Records, released 2003)

LutherVandross.com
LegacyRecordings.com