Luther Vandross had a particular knack for finding duet partners. His duet with Dionne Warwick, “How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye,” gave him his first Top 30 pop hit. His duet with Janet Jackson, “The Best Things In Life Are Free,” gave him his fourth Top 10 pop hit, and his duet with Mariah Carey gave him his biggest hit ever.

Remaking a song that had already been definitively recorded by another artist might have seemed like a strange move for Luther, but by 1994, after more than a decade in the music business, he’d begun to see that it might not be as strange as it seemed. As he noted in a Time-Life documentary about the history of rock ‘n’ roll, “In the 1990s, we’ve had time to look and inspect and analyze everything and be influenced by everything. There isn’t a whole lot of pioneering going on right at this minute. The pioneering went on earlier.”

Sony Records President Tommy Mottola suggested that Vandross record Songs, an album of cover versions. Featuring Luther’s versions of songs like Stephen Stills’ “Love The One You’re With,” Heatwave’s “Always And Forever,” and Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly,” the album was shaping up to be a major career accomplishment. To give the album a bigger boost, Mottola’s wife, Mariah Carey, came up with the idea to remake “Endless Love” as a duet with her. Lionel Richie and Diana Ross had originally recorded “Endless Love” in 1981, and the song spent nine weeks at #1. Although Luther’s album was already set to contain one Lionel Riche composition, “Hello,” it was obvious that having the most-popular female singer on the Sony label singing on the album would be a benefit.

“Endless Love” debuted on September 10, 1994 at #31, a better start than the original version had had. The next week the Vandross/Carey duet jumped to #6 and seemed a shoo-in for #1. Unfortunately the song didn’t have much staying power. After a single week at #2, it was replaced by Sheryl Crow’s “All I Wanna Do” and started falling off the charts. Still, the song became Luther Vandross’ biggest pop hit ever and gave Lionel Richie his first top 10 as a songwriter in seven years. For Mariah, it started a string of six straight Top 2 singles that ended surprisingly thanks to another superstar duet, her #15 collaboration with Whitney Houston from The Prince Of Egypt soundtrack, “When You Believe.”

In the album’s liner notes Luther himself extended his thanks to those who came before him and provided the material so close to his heart: “To the artists who did the original versions of these songs: Dionne, Aretha, Diana & The Supremes, Roberta, Stephen, Diana & Lionel, Barbra, Whitney, Heatwave, The Friends Of Distinction, MdFadden & Whitehead, and ‘Man Of La Mancha.’ Thank you for the pioneering. I love you guys.”

Note: If you haven’t had the chance to check out the inside stories Behind Mariah’s Number One Singles, click on the link to start reading now!

Source: MariahDailyJournal