Video is a get-well card for Vandross

Another chapter is being written this week in the touching story of Luther Vandross’ current success.

The veteran R&B; singer remains hospitalized after an April 16 stroke that left him in critical condition and semiconscious. That might have put the June 10 release of Vandross’ 15th album, “Dance With My Father,” in question. Instead, the album entered the U.S. sales charts at No. 1, making it the fastest-selling of the 52-year-old performer’s career.

The challenge for J Records has been how to promote the album in good taste. The music video for the title track is being finished this week and, instead of creating a taste issue, director Diane Martel says it has become a loving valentine to Vandross.

Word went out to celebs at the 3rd Annual BET Awards last month in Hollywood that Martel and a crew were in an upstairs ballroom to collect footage of well-wishers who wanted to lip-sync the song’s lyrics, offer a salutation to Vandross or simply appear on camera with their fathers. Among those who will appear to be singing the song in the video: Stevie Wonder and his sons; Beyonce Knowles and her father-manager, Mathew Knowles; Brian McKnight; Damon Wayans and his sons; Jasmine Guy and family; singers Johnny Gill and Monica and “American Idol” winner Ruben Studdard.

In the day’s since, Martel and company have gotten a torrent of photos from well-known performers and their fathers, a fitting response to the song, which Vandross wrote about his own dad, who died when the singer was a child.

“It was emotional, beautiful, a love letter to a wonderful performer,” says Martel, who has helmed videos for Method Man, Mariah Carey and Sting. “It’s the kind of song, too, that is very affecting. I was thinking of my own father who died three years ago and our last dance together. It’s a bittersweet thing.”

The singer himself, meanwhile, is still hospitalized but is in stable condition and has been showing signs of improvement. His business manager, Carmen Romano, said: “I feel as though I am watching a ... miracle.”

-- Geoff Boucher