Songoftheday 1/6/18 - Love what have you done? Oh wow, I was sure up to now that she was a friend I stayed 'till the end...

"Don't Want To Be A Fool" - Luther Vandross
from the album Power Of Love (1991)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #9 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's song of the day is by the late soul singer Luther Vandross, whose "medley-style" single "Power Of Love/Love Power" became his second top ten pop hit in the summer of 1991, as well as earning him two Grammy Awards. His follow-up from the Power Of Love album would be in my opinion his best of the 1990s, "Don't Want To Be A Fool". Written by Luther with longtime collaborator Marcus Miller, the midtempo reflection on how hard it is to navigate the treacherous waters of romance and coming up dry especially resonated given his closeted life. And it still rings true to those of us older folks still having to deal with it (it's like in the chorus where he'd seemingly reading my mind), to the point where he changes the words to "I've decided not to let nobody kill me again" before eventually ending up on the music video the the foot of the bridge where many actually do end it all...

"Don't Want To Be A Fool" became Luther's third top ten pop hit in November of 1991. The song also climbed to #4 on Billboard's R&B chart, while crossing over to #5 on their Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio format tally. Internationally, the record just missed the top 40 in Canada at #42.

The third single from Power Of Love, the house music-inspired "The Rush", climbed to #6 on the R&B chart, but stalled down at #73 on the pop Hot 100. Then came the ballad "Sometimes It's Only Love", which missed the pop chart altogether, but reached the top ten on both the R&B (#9) and Adult Contemporary (#9) lists. 

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Here's Luther appearing on the Soul Train Music Awards, where he won for his Power Of Love album...

Next up, live in concert in 1993...

Up tomorrow: Beauty queen boomerangs.