Peabo Bryson has established a career as one of the premier male vocalists in contemporary music of the last few decades. Possessing a beautifully rich, almost operatic voice, this two-time Grammy Award-winner has survived and prospered despite the passage of time and changes in popular musical trends. With 20 albums to his credit, Peabo Bryson has enjoyed an unprecedented, across-the-board level of international success, Bryson has the distinction of being the first artist in music history to have separate records topping four different charts.

Bryson began singing at age 14 as a star of the traveling revue Al Freeman & The Upsetters. Two years later in 1968, he left home to tour the now-famous Southern “chitlin’ circuit” with another local band, Moses Dillard & Tex-Town Display, gaining the experience that would help prepare him for a solid career as a recording artist and entertainer.

His first break came during a recording session at Atlanta’s Bullet/Bang Records, where he caught the ear of the label’s then-general manager, Eddie Biscoe. Biscoe signed Bryson to a contract as a writer, producer and arranger and encouraged Bryson to perform his own songs. For several years, Bryson worked with hometown bands and wrote and produced for Bang. In 1976, he released his debut LP, Peabo. The project featured Bryson composing nearly all of the songs (some with the great Thom Bell) and a young Luther Vandross among the background vocalists, and film star Tamara “Cleopatra Jones” Dobson showing him love on the back jacket.

Bryson moved to Capitol Records in 1978, where his album Reaching for the Sky went gold and the title track was a number six R&B hit. With his LP Crosswinds (gold, 1978), he truly penetrated the hearts of soul fans everywhere with the title tracks “Feel the Fire” and “I’m So Into You,” which spent two weeks as the nation’s number two R&B hit. He was paired with Capitol label-mate Natalie Cole for the 1979 project We’re the Best of Friends, and a year later with Roberta Flack for the double-LP Live & More (on Atlantic Records). He delivered four more albums for Capitol before making a second, even bigger album with Flack titled Born to Love, a gold-seller that featured the smash “Tonight I Celebrate My Love” (Top 5 R&B and #16 Pop). That led him to sign a deal with Elektra Records for four albums, the second of which, Take No Prisoners, featured the crossover smash “If Ever You’re In My Arms Again” (Top 10 Pop and Top 10 R&B).

With each move in his career, applause for Bryson became louder. The New York Times music critic Jon Pareles called Bryson the “Pavarotti of soul singers.” His duets with Natalie Cole (“What You Won’t Do for Love”) and Roberta Flack (“Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” a Top 15 pop smash) had earned Bryson the tag “King of Balladeers.” With “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again,” which landed in the number 10 spot on the pop charts, he scored another crossover hit and solidified his mainstream audience. Both songs went to number one on the adult contemporary charts. A return to Capitol in 1989 for the album All My Love, earned him his first R&B #1 single with a remake of the late Al Wilson’s “Show & Tell” (a song for which he proudly keeps the torch lit for in all of his shows). He hit the top of the R&B chart a second time with the smash “Can You Stop The Rain,” the title track of his R&B chart-topping first of two albums for Columbia Records. The single won Bryson a 1991 Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a male, as did “Lost in the Night” in 1992.

But it was two songs for Disney animated films that earned Bryson his two Grammys. The first was 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast” with international pop-singer Celine Dion, which was a number one pop hit. The very next year, Peabo struck gold again, receiving another Grammy for “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme)” from Aladdin, which he performed with Regina Belle. Both “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) and “A Whole New World” (1992) won Oscars for Best Song. Since these milestones, he has been even more sought-after as a guest vocalist and duet partner, resulting in his collaborations with Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga on “We Kiss in the Shadows” (#1 on the Classical Crossover chart from a new recording of The King and I score), Melissa Manchester’s “Lovers After All” and Kenny G’s “By The Time This Night is Over” (from the chart-topping contemporary jazz CD Breathless), which enjoyed a three-month run on the Hot 100 in 1993. In June 1993, Bryson sold-out seven consecutive shows at Radio City Music Hall.

Demonstrating his skills as an actor, he appeared in the lead role for the touring production of the Tony Award-winning Raisin (based on Raisin In The Sun) and in the role of the wizard in a touring-company of The Wiz. In 1998, he appeared in the Michigan Opera Theater’s 100th-anniversary production of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and he also recorded two songs for the soundtrack of the Barney movie, one of which, the Bryson-produced “Dream,” became the lead song for the album. For 2007’s Missing You, the 20th album of his career, Bryson continued to do what he does best on 11 tracks that showcase the broad palette of his skills.<

Peabo Bryson is, at his intimate best, a legendary vocalist offering a timeless mix of pop and soul as only he can. Bryson has amassed a loyal fan base, critical acclaim and an avalanche of awards by being one of the “truly best friends” a song could ever have.

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