R&B Bridgez: Celebrating the Maestro Barry White

Today on this Throwback Thursday, we celebrate the late great Barry White with an R&B Bridgez.

Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter on September 12th, 1944, was born in Galveston during a family visit to Texas in the fall of 1944.

His mother Sadie had gone to stay with her Texan relatives.

It was not altogether smooth as Melvin White, Barry’s father, was already married with two children of his own, something of which Sadie had no knowledge.

Sadie and baby Barry soon returned to Los Angeles where a brother Darryl joined the family 16 months later.

Sadie eventually got wise to Melvin and he disappeared out of her life when she discovered his other family and realized he was no-good for her.

She and her two sons made the best of their lives and lived happily in the Watts area of Los Angeles.

As soon as he could walk and talk Barry displayed a musical bent, while Darryl became a young thug, terrorizing the neighborhood.

Sadie bought a piano, then a gramophone to help her son develop his talents.

As Barry once remembered: “I’d sit there and listen and knew I wanted to know that lady called music.”

He dazzled the church choir with his musical talents and was running it by the age of 12.

But at the age of 14, Barry’s life changed forever when his voice broke.

Up to then he had sounded just like any other black teenager, but overnight he became unique, as he said himself: “When adolescence hit me, my sound didn’t go down a tenor the way most boys do and stay there. Mine went down twice, first to a tenor and then to a bass singer – the second one was like a drop off the Empire State Building.”

And from that moment, armed with a voice like no one else on the planet, he began a 15-year struggle to make it as a professional musician.

In between he went to prison, got married, fathered five children and got divorced.

Then he met his second wife Glodean and suddenly the path forward became clear.

His first hit record was not for himself but the girl band, led by his wife, called Love Unlimited.

On an otherwise mediocre first album, one track stood out like a beacon, entitled “Walking In The Rain With The One I Love.”

Those 4 minutes and 47 seconds of music became the song that defined Barry White.

He described the song as being “romance inspired as two people meet, go together, and break up and then move on to new loves.”

The song became a hit around the world and made him and saved him.

His overriding ambition was to write and produce – he never wanted to be a performer himself.

But as fate dictated he was unable to find a male act to record his music, so reluctantly he sang the songs himself.

Barry White reluctantly stepped in front of the microphone to make his national recording debut as a solo artist in 1973.

It was a revelation and, together with his arranger and musical guru Gene Page, he recorded his debut album called “I’ve Got So Much To Give.”

In just the next two years he scored four gold #1 hits: “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Baby” (#3 Pop/#1 R&B), “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe” (#1 Pop/#1 R&B) and “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything” (#2 Pop/#1 R&B) and “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” (Cash Box #1 R&B, Billboard #7 Pop/#2 R&B).

Originally released in June 1973, “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” was the first U.S. single from Barry White’s sophomore album, “Stone Gon’.”

The song was written, produced and recorded by Barry and hit gold status.

The song was released in Europe in early 1974 where it peaked at #14 on the UK Singles Chart.

The track also became a UK Top 40 hit in 1997 after Lisa Stansfield, who teamed up with Barry White for a duet version on her 1989 song “All Around the World,” covered “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” for her eponymous album.

Lisa Stansfield’s version was a #1 smash on Billboard Top Dance Tracks chart.

At the same time, his classic “Love’s Theme” from Love Unlimited Orchestra, on which he played piano in addition to writing and producing, was a #1 Pop/#10 R&B smash – making Barry White the only artist ever to have #1 hits with a vocal and an instrumental record in the same year.

The rest of the decade brought “I Belong To You” from Love Unlimited (#1 R&B), “What Am I Gonna Do With You” (#8 Pop/#1 R&B), “Let The Music Play” (#4 R&B), the gold-selling “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me” (#4 Pop/#1 R&B), “Your Sweetness Is My Weakness” (#2 R&B) and the jazzy “Playing Your Game, Baby” (#8 R&B).

From his Love Unlimited Orchestra, there was the #1 Disco/Dance combo single “My Sweet Summer Suite” and “Brazilian Love Song.”

A change of record labels in 1979 temporarily halted the flow of U.S. hits but Barry remained a popular international performing artist, touring consistently throughout Europe and Japan.

In 1983, the late great Marvin Gaye wanted his friend Barry White to produce his next album and had advised Barry to begin writing for him.

At the time some felt Marvin Gaye, being a hot commodity, was giving a career boost to Barry White.

Marvin Gaye responded with; “Barry is a great talent and a great man. I think that I could do justice to his music. Contrary to popular belief, I am quite producible and I enjoy the role of interpreter. I love it when someone wants to produce me and I’m able to give them what they want.”

He cited his work on “I Want You,” written and produced by Leon Ware, as one such instance.

Marvin Gaye was killed before the collaboration could happen.

In 1987, Barry returned to the recording studios once more, signing with A&M and releasing “The Right Night & Barry White” which yielded the R&B Top 20 “Sho’ You Right” and signaled Barry‘s re-emergence as a hitmaker.

Barry White, whose custom Unlimited Gold label spent five rather uneventful years at CBS after his 20th reign, said he came to A&M “because it reminds me of 20th Century. It’s a small company and I can talk to these people face to face. At CBS, I had to spend $20,000 on conference calls to New York, just to have a meeting. I’m not crazy about record companies that are in skyscrapers, because they remind me of Wall Street.”

When he left CBS in 1984 Barry White had a firm offer from MCA Records head Irving Azoff but sought to establish Unlimited Gold as an independent label instead. “I respect Azoff; he’s a good man,” Barry White stated. “But I wanted to go all the way and build a serious company. We had an $8 million commitment from some Dallas investors. Just days before we were to get the money, political developments went down in the Middle East. Our investors had money tied up there and pulled out of our situation. But a record deal itself was no problem. We had plenty of offers.”

Barry stated that neither McClain nor anyone else at A&M ever suggested what kind of record he should make.

While “The Right Night” does feature him collaborating with young A&M artist/producer Bryan Loren (who recently passed away), the album was basically produced by the artist at his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home studio.

Barry White felt the album was true to the romantic R&B pop style of hits such as “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love.” “Why change a successful formula?” Barry said at the time. “It’s not when you come back; it’s what you come back with. Sure, I used some new technique, worked with drum machines and synthesizers, but I’m still doing the Barry White.”

Barry continued; “Why tamper with that? I don’t make records for kids. My songs deal with adult subjects. Many young people like my music, and that’s great, but I’m not trying to sell records to everyone in the free world. That’s why you have Michael Jackson and Prince.”

He prided himself on using the personal touch in promoting his products.

Barry White himself use to call radio stations for reports “because program directors appreciate you treating them as people instead of numbers.”

The veteran entertainer couldn’t understand performers who didn’t do interviews. “Not talk to the people who buy your records? That’s ridiculous,” he once stated. “The problem with young artists today is that they don’t know what it is to work. They have a list of things they won’t do. Then they wonder why the record stiffed.”

His second release for A&M, 1989‘s “The Man Is Back!” further cemented Barry‘s chart hold with the R&B top 10 hit “Wanna Do It Good To Ya” and it didn’t hurt that Barry‘s inimitable vocal style was literally all over Quincy Jones’ Grammy-winning “The Secret Garden (The Seduction Suite)” from the multi-million selling “Back On The Block” album.

“The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite),” was a gold-certified #1 R&B collaboration with Quincy Jones, Al B. Sure!, James Ingram and El DeBarge.

Barry White also won a new audience when his music was used in the hit television series Ally McBeal.

Barry made several appearances also on the Ally McBeal tv show as the alter ego of one of the show’s characters.

His voice and character was featured in The Simpsons and the Cookie Monster once portrayed himself as Barry White with the “Crumbs Unlimited Orchestra” on Sesame Street.

Aside from his heavy touring schedule in 1990, Barry found time to get with legendary rapper Big Daddy Kane to record “All Of Me Wants All Of You” for Kane‘s third album.

Barry‘s status as one of the most influential artists in popular music was further revealed from Britian’s Lisa Stansfield and Soul II Soul, two acts who acknowledged the influence that Barry White has had on their own musical styles.

Preparation for the 1991 release of “Put Me in Your Mix” began after Barry returned from a year of international touring that included his first extensive U.S. trek since 1983.

Barry‘s show was a sell-out event in every major city he played and critics were in awe as Barry hit the stage with as many as 32 string players augmenting his 14-person rhythm section.

While industry pundits debated the impact of lip-syncing non-singers, Barry White wowed audiences with some honest-to-goodness real music.

Subsequent concerts in Europe (France, Italy, Holland, Germany, Spain, the U.K., Denmark, Hungary, Greece and Belgium) generated a similar reaction and with the release of the new album internationally.

Barry‘s universal appeal and the degree to which he’s honored and respected by his peers was fully evident when some of the most important figures in contemporary music turned up at the string dates for the recording sessions for “Put Me in Your Mix.” “On one date, we had H.B. Barnum, Gene Page, Gamble & Huff, Smokey Robinson, Holland-Dozier-Holland and Don Cornelius. For the second session, we had Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, Thom Bell and Norman Whitfield. What made it so amazing was that some of these people had never met before. I felt so proud that they would come together for one of my sessions,” stated Barry. “It was just so electric having such great talent all in one place at one time.”

The power and potency of Barry White‘s music had long endeared him to his many colleagues.

A call to another legendary music man brought an instant response: “I hadn’t seen Isaac Hayes since 1977 and when I told him that I had a track that could be a Barry White/Isaac Hayes monster, Ike zeroed right in. Working with Isaac Hayes on “Dark And Lovely,” which I think of as one of my best ballads, was one of the most beautiful experiences I’ve ever had in the recording studio.”

The song, which Barry explained “is applicable to beautiful women of all races and is referring to the many qualities of a woman-captivating, stimulating, mystifying and sometimes intimidating,” is unquestionably one of the highlights of an album that cooks from start to finish.

“The Icon Is Love” followed in 1994, with the help of hit-making producers, a fashion makeover, and a few high-powered media appearances.

Barry White staged a successful comeback, scoring his first platinum album in more than 15 years.

Barry White‘s A&M/Perspective album, “The Icon Is Love,” debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart.

By the week ending November 26th, it had reached #1.

The album peaked on The Billboard 200 at #20.

The last album that was certified platinum was “The Man” in 1978.

Barry White stated “The Icon Is Love” has “great songs, quality melodies, heartfelt lyrics, and a sound of distinction with [my] voice. I’ve always believed that once you’ve had great success, you can have it again -you take what’s old, and in 10 years, it’s new again.”

The album featured what would become Barry‘s biggest hit “Practice What You Preach.”

Written by Barry White, the late great Gerald Levert and Edwin Nicholas.

The single reached #1 on the R&B Billboard charts.

His final album “Staying Power” was released in 1999. The gold album featured the single “The Longer We Make Love” featuring Lisa Stansfield and Chaka Khan.

His final album, 1999’s “Staying Power,” resulted in his last hit song “Staying Power.”

The single won him two Grammy Awards in the categories Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance.

That same year, Barry released his memoir “Love Unlimited: Insights on Life and Love.”

Barry White died of heart and kidney failure in 2003.

Barry White was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on September 12th, 2013.

Take A Trip Down Memory Lane with Barry White!