Peabo Bryson
About this Artist
Peabo Bryson has established a career as one of the premier male vocalists in contemporary music of the last quarter century. 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, 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 and the Tex-Town Display, gaining the experience that would help prepare him for a solid career as a recording artist and entertainer.
Bryson’s first break came during a recording session at Atlanta’s Bullet/Bang Records. The young singer caught the ear of the label’s then-general manager, Eddie Biscoe, who signed Bryson to a contract as a writer, producer, and arranger and encouraged Bryson to perform his own songs.
Bryson moved to Capitol Records in 1978, where his album Reaching for the Sky went gold. 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). Peabo 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.” That led him to sign a deal with Elektra Records for four albums, the first of which, Straight From the Heart, featured the crossover smash “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again.”
A return to Capitol Records in 1989 for the album All My Love earned him his first R&B No. 1 single with a remake of the late Al Wilson’s “Show & Tell” (a song he proudly keeps the torch lit for in all of his shows). He hit the R&B chart-top 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 Peabo his two Grammys. The first was 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast” with international pop singer Celine Dion, which was a No. 1 pop hit. The very next year, Bryson 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 Original Song.
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.