Music
The soulful singer, best known for his 1978 hit What You Won’t Do for Love, has died after a long illness, his wife said
Bobby Caldwell, the influential singer-songwriter behind such R&B hits as Open Your Eyes and What You Won’t Do for Love, has died at the age of 71.
The singer had been through a long illness, according to a statement from his wife, Mary Caldwell. “Bobby died here at home. I held him tight in my arms as he left us. I am heartbroken forever. Thank you all for your many prayers over the years,” she said wrote on his verified Twitter account.
Caldwell was known for his soulful voice and ability to perform in many genres, which he credited to the diversity of his hometown of Miami, Florida. His signature song “What You Won’t Do for Love” hit the Billboard charts shortly after its release in 1978 and was sampled by Tupac Shakur in his posthumous 1998 hit “Do For Love”. Other artists such as Common, The Notorious BIG and John Legend have sampled his music.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who worked with Common on The Light and sampled Caldwell’s Open Your Eyes, posted a tribute to Instagram with a lengthy caption describing years of phone play with the late singer. “You missed such an opportunity to meet a legend. Thank you for your vote and gift,” he wrote.
Born in Manhattan in 1951, Caldwell grew up in Miami, where he was exposed to the city’s Latin, Haitian, reggae, and R&B music. He had his big break in the early 1970s as a rhythm guitarist with Little Richard and signed to TK Records in 1978, a label best known for black artists.
Outside of his solo career, Caldwell has written music for other artists including The Next Time I Fall for Amy Grant and Peter Cetera.
“Most of the wonderful people I’ve met in the radio business all say the same thing,” Caldwell said of music in a 2005 interview with NPR. “It’s like a universal language and shouldn’t have any boundaries. ”
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