I am a huge Luther Vandross fan and have numerous copies of both his Cotillion LP’s from 1976 and 1977. I even have some sealed copies as well. I saw this Sealed 8 Track on Ebay for just 9.99 a couple of years back and I won the bid and was so excited to own maybe the only Luther 8 Track on the East Coast.
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Allee Willis
I was friends with Luther since 1974 when he played piano for Fonzi, the group I hired to be my background singers on my first and only tour when my album, Childstar, came out on Epic Records. Fonzi Thornton, the leader of the group, was Luther’s best friend since childhood. Luther sang a lot of my early demos including a duet we did together called ‘Orphan Allee”.
I found an eight track of my LP Childstar on eBay a few years ago and actually had no idea it was ever out in that format. Luther was on Epic too. I don’t know if he knew this was out on eight track or not but by 1976 most LPs weren’t made in that format. So it’s entirely possible you may, in fact, have one of the few around.
Luther was a great guy. I have incredible memories of back in the day when we were both trying to break into the business. We laughed A LOT. He lived for his music and left us way too soon.
Saro
Yeah when Luther had his stroke I wanted to send him a tribute CD package to him of his earlier material from the 1970’s. Since I contacted David Lasley and he was kind to send it to him for me. Luther received the package a couple of weeks before he passed and he and Fonzi were listening to all the songs I had sent and were floored by my collection. Fonzi called David and said he couldn’t believe that I had the 1969 Listen My Brother single the group that they had been in high school. David then sent me an email asking me to call him and that is where our friendship began. David has since that time given me so many cool things like a shirt that Luther had given David at one time. Tons of Lp’s that he and Luther sang background on and even invited me as a VIP guest to a James Taylor concert back in Aug 2006 where I live in Charlottesville,Va. It was cool meeting David and Arnold McCuller and the James Taylor band and James Taylor himself.
Allee Willis
David and Arnold are some of the first friends I made when I first started writing and singing. I met Luther a little before that. David was one of my earliest collaborators too. We wrote “Lead Me On” together and a trillion other songs in the late ’70s. Arnold used to sing a lot of my demos too including “Neutron Dance”. They’re incredible guys and some of the best singers around.
Saro
I remember hearing the song Lead Me On when I was 7 years old back in 1979 on the radio. I love that song and I think it is cool that you and David co-wrote it. I like Arnold’s voice and music as well. David and Luther sang background on his 1979 single Nowhere To Run which was in the movie The Warriors.