Jeffrey Osborne

One of the defining voices of 70s R&B, Jeffrey Linton Osborne (born on March 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter who jumped to fame as a member of soul group L.T.D. The son of a renowned jazz trumpeter, Osborne was the youngest of 12 children in a music-loving household. After the sudden passing of his father, he began performing professionally as a drummer during his teens, first with Philly outfit The O’Jays and then with Love Men Ltd., then renamed L.T.D., an acronym for Love, Togetherness & Devotion. Osborne’s vocal talent soon became evident as he abandoned the drum kit and became the group’s lead singer. L.T.D. jumped to fame in 1978 with their third album, Love to the World, which contained the chart-topping single “Love Ballad.” He embarked on a highly-successful solo career in 1980 with an eponymous full-length and the singles “On the Wings of Love” and “I Really Don't Need No Light,” both of which entered the Billboard Hot 100. Stay with Me Tonight arrived in 1983 and quickly obtained gold certification aided by its title track and other three charting singles: “Don't You Get So Mad,” “Plane Love,” and “We’re Going All the Way.” Osborne scored two more gold records with Don't Stop (1984) and Emotional (1986), and One Love – One Dream (1988) contained the Number 1 R&B hit single “She’s on the Left,” his last entry on Billboard’s Hot 100. Throughout the 90s, he delivered Only Human (1990), which peaked at Number 9 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and a couple of scattered singles that failed to meet the success of his early work. Music Is Life (2000) arrived thirteen years after his last studio album and was followed by A Time for Love (2013) and Worth It All (2018), whose title track reached Number 12 on the Adult R&B charts.