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The week before, the video for the song became his first to be played on MTV.

Moreover, the record still has its "bullet," a designation that means that sales and radio airplay are increasing, and that the record might go even higher. 4 on the Billboard pop charts, a career high. That song went on to win him his first Grammy - for best rhythm and blues vocal performance, male - after nine prior nominations, and the roll continued with his single "Power of Love/Love Power." On this day in Chicago, the song, a combination of a Vandross original ("Power of Love") and a 1967 hit by the Sandpebbles ("Love Power") is perched at No. He didn't even hit the top 10 until April 1990, when "Here and Now," his 17th single, finally did the trick. Indeed, for a decade critics have been proclaiming the 40-year-old singer the "Voice of his Generation," a balladeer exemplar who doesn't have to sacrifice his musicality - his consistently accurate pitch, his substantial range - for the vocal passion and commitment that were hallmarks of what came to be known in the 60's as soul.īut it is only recently that Vandross has been able to count himself among today's commercial elite. Vandross doesn't bother to distinguish the good from the merely popular, but his point is clear: when pop music historians do just that 20 or 30 years hence, he himself will come out on the long end. It's a groove set by a younger group of people who want to dance and not really listen very hard." "It's just a time when mediocrity is very hip. It's a painful thing to realize sometimes." Though Tiny Tim was primarily a novelty act, Vandross sees a connection between him and many of today's chart-toppers. And then a record like 'Tip-Toe Thru the Tulips With Me' would come along.

It would be the Beatles, the Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Elvis and Dionne Warwick. "You had fabulous acts in the top five on the charts. Suddenly, he conjures the image of Tiny Tim - not the Dickens character from "A Christmas Carol," but rather the ukulele-strumming androgyne who made a blip on the pop music scene in the 1960's. IT IS A SUMMER MONDAY IN CHICAGO, AND Luther Vandross, in town to promote his latest album, "Power of Love," has been staring at the sun-bathed skyline from his 20th-floor hotel room.