Soul singer/songwriter Bobby Caldwell, greatest identified for his 1978 hit “What You Received’t Do For Love,” has died at 71. His spouse, Mary Caldwell, introduced the information in a tweet on Wednesday morning (March 15), writing that, “Bobby handed away right here at dwelling. I held him tight in my arms as he left us. I’m without end heartbroken. Due to all of you on your many prayers through the years. He had been ‘FLOXED,’ it took his well being during the last 6 years and a pair of months. Relaxation with God, my Love.”
Whereas Mary Caldwell didn’t specify what ailment the singer suffered from, “Floxed” usually refers to a situation the Regenerative Medication L.A. therapy middle says arises from the hostile results of consuming fluoroquinolone antibiotics reminiscent of Ciprofloxacin, Levaquin or Avelox; no extra info on the reason for Caldwell’s demise was out there at press time.
Robert Hunter Caldwell was born on April 15, 1951 in New York Metropolis and bought his first huge break serving because the rhythm guitarist for Little Richard within the early Seventies earlier than going solo later within the decade and scoring successful out of the field on his TK Information debut with the No. 9 Billboard Scorching 100 single “What You Received’t Do For Love.”
In a 2005 interview with NPR, Caldwell mentioned the Miami-based label with a largely Black, R&B roster didn’t “need it to be well-known that I used to be white,” which explains why his image was left off the duvet of his self-titled debut. Moreover, he mentioned the file was initially accomplished with out the sleek, jazzy ballad “Love,” which Caldwell wrote and minimize in a rush to please TK boss Henry Stone. The track went on to cement Caldwell’s fame as a “blue-eyed soul” star and it has been lined since by everybody from Boyz II Males to Michael Bolton, Roy Ayers and Snoh Aalegra; it was additionally sampled by Tupac Shakur on “Do For Love.”
He scored once more in 1980 with the light piano pop tune “Open Your Eyes” from that yr’s Cat within the Hat album, which was later sampled by producer J Dilla for the track “The Gentle” from Frequent’s Like Water for Chocolate album.
Describing his sound, which blended pop with easy jazz, R&B and a Brazilian/island vibe, Caldwell instructed NPR that his time rising up in Miami absorbing all types of music — “Haitian, reggae, Latin, pop, R&B” — in addition to befriending his actual property mother’s consumer, reggae icon Bob Marley, helped him discover his signature groove.
Caldwell continued to launch albums all through the Nineteen Eighties, Nineteen Nineties and into the mid-2010’s, all through his last assortment, 2015’s Cool Uncle. He additionally wrote the hit 1986 duet “The Subsequent Time I Fall” for Amy Grant and Chicago’s Peter Cetera, in addition to songs for Neil Diamond, Boz Scaggs, Ayers, Chicago and Natalie Cole, amongst others.
See Mary Caldwell’s tweet and take heed to “What You Received’t Do For Love” under.
