Before his solo breakthrough, Vandross was part of a singing quintet named Luther in the late 1970s. The quintet consisted of former Shades of Jade members Anthony Hinton and Diane Sumler, as well as Theresa V. Reed, and Christine Wiltshire, signed to Cotillion Records. Although the singles "It's Good for the Soul", "Funky Music (Is a Part of Me)", and "The Second Time Around" were relatively successful, their two albums, the self-titled "Luther" (1976) and "This Close to You" (1977), which Vandross produced, did not sell enough to make the charts. --> Vandross bought back the rights to those albums after Cotillion dropped the group, preventing them from being re-released.