Remembering Bobby Caldwell
• Singer-songwriter Bobby Caldwell, who will forever be remembered for his timeless 1978 hit “What You Won’t Do for Love,” has died after a lengthy illness. He was 71. Caldwell’s wife Mary broke the sad news on Twitter.
“What You Won’t Do for Love,” Caldwell’s debut single, was released in September 1978 on Miami-based TK Records. As the Variety story goes, in order to compete for airtime with Smokey Robinson, Teddy Pendergrass and the many Black artists of the “Quiet Storm” format, TK initially attempted to conceal Caldwell’s racial identity, but the song’s popularity only grew once he started performing it live, eventually reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 6 on the R&B chart. Caldwell’s self-titled album, which featured him only in silhouette, eventually went double platinum.
As a songwriter, Caldwell co-wrote “The Next Time I Fall” with Paul Gordon, which became a huge 1986 hit for Peter Cetera and Amy Grant, reaching the top of the Hot 100 and AC charts and was nominated for Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
Caldwell’s music has also been sampled hundreds of times — according to Whosampled.com, “What You Won’t Do for Love” alone has been used or covered by everyone from Aaliyah to Tupac. Variety notes that The Notorious B.I.G. sampled Caldwell’s “My Flame” for his 1997 song “Sky’s The Limit,” and Caldwell’s “Open Your Eyes” was sampled by Common for his 2000 single, “The Light.” In 2019, Lil Nas X was sued for $25 million for sampling Caldwell’s 1982 song “Carry On” in a song on his pre-fame mixtape, Nasarati. [Photo from Twitter]
