Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Missing You, Gerald Levert

Today would have been the 45th birthday of Grammy award winning R&B singer Gerald Edward Levert, who was born on this day in 1966 in Canton, Ohio and died November 10, 2006.

For you younglings who are saying "who's he?",  Gerald along with his late brother Sean and friend Marc Gordon founded the award winning R&B group LeVert in 1984.  Four of LeVert's seven albums, I Get Hot in 1985, Bloodline in 1986, The Big Throwdown in 1987, and Just Coolin in 1988 went platinum.

Translation, the group had it goin' on.

So did Gerald.  He went solo in 1991 with the Private Line album that hit Number 1 on the R&B chart and did some memorable duets with his father, O'Jays lead singer Eddie Levert.    Gerald was also part of the supergroup LSG formed by himself, Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill.   Their debut album Levert-Sweat-Gill sold two million copies when it was released in 1997.

Gerald wrote and produced songs for artists such as the O'Jays, Stephanie Mills, Barry White and James Ingram just to name a few and was part of the 1994 Black Men United collaboration of 40 African American male artists with the song You Will Know, that was featured in the movie Jason's Lyric and in the movie soundtrack. 



Gerald is still missed by his family and fans, and even more so by those of us who love real music.

 

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