Photo: Bryan Steffy/BET/Getty
Caldwell died on Tuesday at his home in New Jersey, his wife Mary Caldwell confirmed on Twitter.TMZwas first to report the news.
“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,” she wrote. “Rest with God, my love.”
Caldwell was known for his blue-eyed soul, and “What You Won’t Do For Love,” which appeared on his eponymous debut album in 1978, cracked the Top 10 of theBillboardHot 100.
He was raised on the music of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett and the Beatles, and started his own career as a rhythm guitarist for Little Richard in the early 1970s, according to theLos Angeles Times.
Caldwell’s first tour was opening for Natalie Cole, and in a 2005 interview withNPR, he recalled the audience’s surprise at discovering he was White, as his soulful vocals suggested otherwise.
“I was very surprised at seeing nothing but Black [people] in the audience. And certainly they were probably more surprised than I was!” he said. “Most of the wonderful people I’ve gotten to know in the radio business, they all say the same thing. It’s like a universal language, and should have no barriers.”
In the aftermath of “What You Won’t Do For Love,” Caldwell began writing for other artists at the suggestion of his friend Boz Skaggs, and ended up penning hits like “The Next Time I Fall” for stars likeAmy Grantand Peter Cetera.
“In the songwriter community, I eventually established myself as someone who could be a chameleon and tailor things for other people,” Caldwell told theLos Angeles Timesin 1991. “I like doing that, but I don’t want to do it for the rest of my life because there is a part of me that loves to perform.”
Caldwell, who lived with his wife and daughter on a horse farm in New Jersey, released more than a dozen albums, and he put out his final record,Cool Uncle, in 2015.
source: people.com
