inger Bobby Caldwell has died aged 71 following a long illness.
The musician – who was best known for his hit song What You Won’t Do For Love – died on Tuesday at his home, with his wife Mary by his side.
Sharing the news of his passing on his official Twitter account, Caldwell’s bereft widow wrote: “Bobby passed away here at home. I held him tight in my arms as he left us. I am forever heartbroken.
“Thanks to all of you for your many prayers over the years. He had been “FLOXED,” it took his health over the last 6 years and 2 months.
“Rest with God, my Love. – Mary Caldwell,” she signed off.
“Floxing” is a term used to describe when a body sustains mitochondrial damage and oxidative stress after taking the antibiotic fluoroquinolone.
TMZ claimed that the singer had “not been able to walk for about five years as he coped with painful bouts of neuropathy and a ruptured tendon in his ankle.”
Born in New York as Robert Hunter Caldwell, he started out in showbusiness as the rhythm guitarist for Little Richard. After going solo, he would release over a dozen albums, spanning different genres, including R&B, smooth jazz and show tunes.
An in-demand songwriter, he penned hits for well-known artists such as Chicago, Boz Scaggs, Peter Cetera and Amy Grant, Neil Diamond and Al Jarreau.
His greatest legacy is perhaps his 1978 single What You Won’t Do For Love.
The track has been sampled many times down the years, including famously on Tupac Shakur’s posthumously released 1998 single Do for Love. Other tracks by Caldwell have also been regularly sampled by hip-hop artists.
His music was unusually popular among Black American audiences, something which prompted his first label TK Records to obscure the fact that he was white in some of the music’s marketing.