Peabo Bryson, Voice of Disney Duets, Dies at 75
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- Peabo Bryson died June 2 at age 75 after reportedly suffering a stroke days earlier, his family confirmed in a statement to People: 'While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved.'
- Bryson won both of his Grammys for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals — for 'Beauty and the Beast' with Celine Dion (Top 10, 1991) and 'A Whole New World' with Regina Belle (No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, 1992) — and picked up six additional nominations between 1992 and 2000.
- Bryson built a 20-album solo catalog from 1976 to 2018, earned five career gold records, and placed nine songs in the R&B Top 10, including chart-toppers 'Show & Tell' (1989) and 'Can You Stop the Rain' (1991).
- Bryson's collaborations stretched across adult-contemporary royalty: the 1983 duets LP 'Born to Love' with Roberta Flack spawned the Top 20 pop hit 'Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,' and he topped Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart three times, including on Kenny G's 'By the Time This Night Is Over' from the 1993 album 'Breathless,' which has sold more than 12 million copies in the U.S.
- Bryson was born Robert Peopo Bryson on April 13, 1951, in Greenville, SC, first charted in 1975, and signed with Capitol Records in 1977 for the gold-selling 'Reaching for the Sky' — well before the Disney work made him a household name.
Why it matters: Bryson's two Grammys both went to Disney duets that have outlasted nearly every other pop hit of 1991-92 — 'A Whole New World' topped the Hot 100, 'Beauty and the Beast' reached the Top 10. His death ends a 20-album, 9-R&B-Top-10 career and leaves the adult-contemporary ballad tradition he shared with Flack and Cole noticeably thinner.
