Barry White - Biography
By Lee Hildebrand
Crooning and rapping in a raspy bedroom bass-baritone over billowing orchestral cushions and meticulously crafted rhythm tracks, singer-songwriter-producer Barry White was the ultimate soul loveman of the 1970s. His sensuous songs treated male-female relationships with great sensitivity, and his fusion of symphonic sounds with Latin-tinged funk rhythms greatly influenced disco music, as well as the later British soul of Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul.
As a vocalist, White had 14 Top Ten R&B hits, with six of them rising to the number one spot and one, 1974’s “Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” also reaching the pinnacle of the Pop Singles chart. As leader of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, he topped the Pop Singles chart in 1973 with the instrumental “Love's Theme.” As the mentor and producer of Love Unlimited – the San Pedro, California vocal trio comprised of his wife Glodean, her sister Linda James, and Diane Taylor – he created the 1974 R&B chart-topper “I Belong to You.”
The portly producer’s mammoth success came after years of struggle in the Los Angeles R&B community. White was born Barrence Eugene Carter on September 12, 1944, in Galveston, Texas and came to California with his mother and brother when he was six-months old. He began singing in the choir at the Greater Tabernacle Baptist Church in Los Angeles at the age of eight, became its organist two years later, and was soon serving as assistant director. He even considered becoming a preacher. It has been said that he made his recording debut at the age of 11, playing piano on vocalist Jesse Belvin’s 1956 hit “Goodnight My Love,” one of the first L.A. doo-wop records to use strings. After a scrape with the law that found him serving four months in juvenile hall for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires, White resolved to straighten up and fly right. He became bass singer for the Upfronts, a vocal group that recorded six singles for the Lummetone label.
White worked throughout the 1960s as a sideman, songwriter, producer, and arranger for a number of small Southern California labels including Ebb, Class, Rampart, Marc, Mirwood, Bronco, Mustang, Sandy, Liberty, OKeh, and Original Sound. He served as road manager for the singing duo Bob (Relf) and Earl (Nelson) and played on their 1963 pop hit “Harlem Shuffle” (successfully revived by The Rolling Stones in 1986 and sampled in 1992 for House of Pain’s “Jump Around”). He also played on Nelson’s major hit of 1965, “The Duck” (issued under the name Jackie Lee). While heading the A&R department at Bob Keene’s Bronco and Mustang labels, White formed a lasting relationship with arranger Gene Page and scored twice as producer and songwriter for Diana Ross sound-alike Felice Taylor with “It May Be Winter Outside (But in My Heart It's Spring)” and “I Feel Love Comin’ On." He also recorded as a vocalist under the names Lee Barry for Downey, Gene West for Original Sound, and as Barry White for Bronco. Unfortunately, the songs didn’t bring much his way financially and White, his first wife, and their four children survived for five years on public assistance.
The seeds of his ‘70’s sound were planted on his productions for Felice Taylor and on 1971’s “Oh Love (Well We Finally Made It)” by Smoke, a group that included Relf. The style fully blossomed on Love Unlimited’s debut single, 1972’s “Walkin' in the Rain with the One I Love,” which landed at number six on the R&B chart and at number 14 on the Pop Singles chart. Released on the Uni label, the single featured rain sound effects, Page’s lavish orchestration of White’s arrangement, and White’s deep voice speaking on a telephone. The trio, which White had been grooming since 1969, then signed with Russ Regan’s 20th Century Records. There, White quickly emerged as a solo vocalist, beginning in 1973 with the hypnotic “I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby” (number one on the R&B chart and number three on the Pop Singles chart), and “I've Got So Much Love to Give” (number five on the R&B chart and number 32 on the Pop Singles chart), both from his debut solo album I’ve Got So Much Love to Give (1973 20th Century).
White continued cutting hits for 20th Century. His follow-up album Stone Gon’ (1973 20th Century) yielded “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” (number two on the R&B chart and number seven on the Pop Singles chart), “Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” (number one on both charts), and “You're the First, the Last, My Everything” (number one on the R&B chart and number two on the Pop Singles chart). 1974’s Just Another Way to Say I Love You (1974 20th Century) hit number one on the Pop Albums chart and introduced the number one R&B chart-topper “What Am I Gonna Do with You.” Barry White Sings for Someone You Love (1977 20th Century) landed at number eight on the Pop Albums chart and had the hit “It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me,” which scored top place on the R&B chart and number four on the Pop Singles chart. “Your Sweetness Is My Weakness” from 1978’s The Man (1978 20th Century) hit number two on the R&B chart and 60 on the Pop Singles chart. The Man also includes his treatment of Billy Joel's “Just the Way You Are,” one of the few cover songs of White’s career.
During his five-year run at or near the top of the charts, White found time to produce hits for other artists. Besides Love Unlimited Orchestra’s “Love's Theme,” which White had written as an overture for the Love Unlimited album Under the Influence of Love (1974 20th Century), they include Gloria Scott’s “Just As Long As We're Together (In My Life There Will Never Be Another)” and Danny Pearson’s “What's Your Sign Girl?” Even White’s old friend Earl Nelson (a.k.a. Jackie Lee) scored a minor hit under the name Jay Dee with 1974’s White-produced “Strange Funky Games and Things.”
String arrangements by the Los Angeles-born, Brooklyn Conservatory-trained Page were a key component of White’s productions for himself and others, especially during the ‘70s. White consistently employed many of Southern California’s top studio musicians for his sessions during that period. Among them were guitarists Ray Parker Jr., Melvin “Wah Wah Watson” Ragin, and David T. Walker; bassists Nathan East and Wilton Felder; drummer Ed Greene; and percussionist Gary Coleman.
The Message is Love (1979 Unlimited Gold) was the first to appear on his new Columbia-distributed Unlimted Gold label, but none of the sides he cut during the label’s three-year lifespan managed to crack the Top 10 on either chart, let alone achieve gold status. Among White's strongest performances during that time is a brilliant new treatment of his early idol Richard Barry's oft-recorded “Louie Louie” from the album Beware! (1981 Unlimited Gold).
White, who had composed the soundtrack for the 1974 suspense thriller Together Brothers, made his acting debut the following year as co-star (with Philip Michael Thomas, Charles Gordone, and Scatman Crothers) of director Ralph Bakshi's Coonskin. The film, which mixes live action and animation, satirizes racial stereotypes and the blaxploitation genre. Prior to its official release, however, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Reverend Al Sharpton declared the film itself to be racist. Few people saw Cookskin, as its theatrical distribution was limited. It was subsequently re-released under the titles Bustin' Out and Street Fight.
Following the failure of Unlimited Gold, White took a five-year break from recording. He reemerged in 1987 on A&M Records with the album The Right Night & Barry White (1987 A&M Records), which yielded the number 17 R&B chart single “Sho' You Right.” In 1990, he shared vocals with Al B. Sure, James Ingram, and El DeBarge on the Qunicy Jones number one R&B chart-topping hit “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Song).” The following year, White found himself at number two on the R&B chart with the single “Put Me in Your Mix” from the album Put Me in Your Mix (1991 A&M Records). White scored his final R&B chart-topper in 1994 with “Practice What You Preach” from The Icon is Love (1995 A&M Records).
White recorded several duets during the '90s, including “All Around the World” with Lisa Stansfield and “Dark & Lovely (You Over There)” with Isaac Hayes (whose symphonic soul style predated and has often been compared to White's) in 1992, and “In Your Wildest Dreams” with Tina Turner in 1996. He also made a guest appearance on rapper Big Daddy Kane's “All of Me” in 1991 and joined Babyface, Tamia, and Portrait on Quincy Jones’ “Slow Jams” in 1996.
The singer, who had long battled high blood pressure, suffered kidney failure in 2002 and a stroke the following year. He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on July 4, 2003. A sad day indeed.
Many of White's hits can be found on the CD compilations Greatest Hits (1990 Island), All-Time Greatest Hits (1994 – Island/Mercury), the three-disc The Ultimate Collection (2000 Mercury), 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection (2003 A&M), and Gold (2008 Hip-O). Boss Soul: The Genius of Barry White (1997 Del-Fi) features his work from the '60s for the Bronco and Mustang labels, both as a vocalist and as a producer for Felice Taylor, Viola Wills, and Johnny Wyatt.