Bobby Caldwell, the soulful singer and songwriter behind R&B hits like What You Won’t Do For Love and Open Your Eyes, has died, based on an announcement from his spouse, Mary Caldwell.
He was 71.
“Bobby passed away here at home. I held him tight in my arms as he left us. I am forever heartbroken. Thanks to all of you for your many prayers over the years,” Mary Caldwell’s assertion, shared on his verified Twitter account, learn partially.
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She stated Caldwell had been coping with well being points for a while.
Caldwell’s hit music “What You Won’t Do For Love” hit the Billboard 100 charts after its launch in 1978. Artists together with Tupac Shakur, Common and John (*71*) have all sampled his music.
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Questlove, who collaborated with Common on The Light, which sampled Caldwell’s Open Your Eyes, shared a tribute to the late artist on Instagram, describing how he tried to work with him through the years.
“Man such a missed opportunity to meet a legend,” Questlove wrote. “Thank you for your voice and gift.”
His final file, Cool Uncle, launched in 2015 featured a duet with British singer Jessie Ware.
She took to social media to pay tribute.
“Just landed in New York to the sad news that Bobby Caldwell – one of the greatest – has passed away,” she captioned the submit.
“What a loss. Sampha and I covered ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’ and I was lucky enough to be invited to sing on his last record. I never met him, but I feel very honoured to have been on a track with him.
“I can be belting out ‘Open Your Eyes’ at this time and remembering the legend.”
Other fans of Caldwell shared memories on social media, with one musician writing, “Thank you for sharing Bobby with us and the remainder of the world, which dropped at it a lot pleasure and magnificence. He can be missed and his reminiscence can be a blessing.”
Caldwell was born in New York and grew up in Miami and got a big break as a guitarist for Little Richard.
He credited the cultural diversity of his hometown, with its Haitian, reggae, Latin, pop, and R&B influences, with is ability to perform music across genres.
“Most of the fantastic folks I’ve gotten to know within the radio enterprise, all of them say the identical factor. It’s like a common language, and shouldn’t have any boundaries,” Caldwell said of music in a 2005 interview with NPR.
Beyond his solo career, he also wrote hit songs for others artists like The Next Time I Fall for Amy Grant and Peter Cetera.
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