Peabo Bryson

Peabo Bryson is a hugely successful American R&B and pop singer whose engaging personality and rich tenor voice has brought international acclaim with a long list of solo recordings and hits with other artists including the theme tunes to blockbuster Disney animation feature films. He has had 20 releases on Billboard's R&B Albums Chart and 41 on the R&B Singles Chart and he has earned eight Grammy Award nominations with two wins. Born Robert Peapo Bryson on April 13, 1951, in Greenville, South Carolina, to a family of French and Caribbean heritage, he sang as a teenager with a local group called Al Freeman and the Upsetters and took the name Peabo when Al Freeman stumbled over the pronunciation of his middle name. He had stints with Moses Dillard's Tex-Town Display and other bands before he made his solo recording debut in 1976 with Peabo which went to number 48 on Billboard's R&B Albums Chart. Reaching for the Sky (1978) reached number 11 on the R&B Albums Chart, Crosswinds (1979) number 3, We're the Best of Friends (1980) with Natalie Cole number 7, Paradise (1980) number 13, Live & More (1981) with Roberta Flack number 10, Turn the Hands of Time (1981) number 23, I Am Love (1982) number 6, Don't Play with Fire (1983) number 8 and Straight from the Heart (1984) number 12. His 1978 single "Reaching for the Sky" peaked at number 6 on Billboard's R&B Singles Chart, "I'm So Into You" (1979) went to number 2, "Gimme Some Time" (1980) with Natalie Cole number 8, "Let the Feeling Flow" (1982) number 6, "Tonight I Celebrate My Love" (1983) number 5, "If You're Ever in My Arms Again" (1984) number 6, "Show & Tell" (1989) Number 1, "All My Love" (1989) number 6 and "Closer Than Close" (1991) number 10. His 1991 release Can You Stop the Rain topped the R&B Albums Chart while the title track topped the R&B Singles Chart and earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance as did "Lost in the Night" (1992) which reached number 43 on the R&B Chart and number 45 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. "Beauty and the Beast" (1992) with Celine Dion went to number 9 on the Hot 100 and earned two Grammy nominations with one win as did "A Whole New World" in 1993 with Regina Belle which topped the Hot 100 and peaked at number 21 on the R&B Chart. His songs can also be heard on the soundtrack of movies such as Bustin' Loose (1981), Bad Boys (1983) and D.C. Cab (1983). His 1999 album Unconditional Love features two Grammy-nominated tracks, the title song and "Did You Ever Know". A two-disc, 30-track compilation album, Anthology: Peabo Bryson, was released in 2001. His latest release, Stand for Love, came out in August 2018. After suffering a heart attack in 2019, Peabo Bryson died of a stroke on June 2, 2026, at the age of 75.