Robbed hit of the week 5/9/16 - Luther Vandross' "Any Love"...

"Any Love" - Luther Vandross
from the album Any Love (1988)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #44

This week's "robbed hit" comes from the late great soul singer Luther Vandross, who in 1987 had landed the biggest pop hit of his career up to that point with "Stop To Love", and followed it with a #1 R&B single in "There's Nothing Better Than Love", his duet with Gregory Hines. The following year, Vandross released his sixth solo album Any Love, preceded by the title track as the first radio single. Co-written and co-produced by Luther with Marcus Miller, the mid-tempo love ballad was another perfect fit for "quiet storm" stations that were popping up with the successes of Anita Baker and Sade. If you listen to the lyrics, it seems to be one of his most personal, like a conversation to himself to let himself open to love (whatever you make of his sexuality)...

While "Any Love" raced to #1 on Billboard's R&B chart (his fourth trip there), the single stalled right under the top-40 on the U.S. pop Hot 100 at #44 in November of 1988. It also crossed over to the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio list at #12. Internationally, the track made the top-40 in the UK at #31. "Any Love" was nominated for two Grammy awards the following year, losing the best R&B song to Anita Baker's "Giving You The Best That I Got" and best R&B male performance to Terence Trent D'Arby.

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...and here's Luther performing the song live in England in 1989...