- Can't Get Enough · 1974
- The Icon Is Love · 1994
- Can't Get Enough · 1974
- Stone Gon' · 1973
- All-Time Greatest Hits · 1977
- The Complete 20th Century Records Singles (1973-1979) · 1974
- Q's Jook Joint · 1995
- All-Time Greatest Hits · 1975
- I've Got so Much to Give · 1973
- All-Time Greatest Hits · 1974
- All-Time Greatest Hits · 1973
Essential Albums
- Armed with his buttery baritone, Barry White oozes sensuality throughout this simmering R&B set. Gene Page's arrangements blend luxurious strings, harpsichord, and honeyed choruses into a sexy, sophisticated gush of ardor that verges on disco without ever going fully four-to-the-floor. The title track boasts close, spine-tingling harmonies, sizzling horn charts, and a deeply funky groove, while "I Can't Believe You Love Me" promises 10 minutes of cheek-to-cheek bliss. "You're the First, the Last, My Everything" is as heartfelt as love songs get, and even the bookending instrumentals smolder tenderly.
- In the early '70s, Barry White took the new freedoms accorded to soul artists to new extremes of lushness and over-the-top romanticism. Stone Gon' was the second White album in the veteran composer-producer's new guise as super-emperor of the bedroom, offering five tracks running between five and ten minutes each. Two cuts became early entries in his long string of insistently ardent hits: "Honey Please, Can't Ya See" recalled Thom Bell's recent work with the Spinners, while "Never Never Gonna Give Ya Up" married White's style to the rhythmic innovations of disco. The latter, in fact, all but encapsulates the sensual urgency that listeners think of when they consider Barry White. Excellent albums like this one ensure that they'll be considering him for a long time to come.
Music Videos
Artist Playlists
- The passion and purr, set to marathon soul grooves.
- These R&B stylists took cues from soul's premier sensualist.
- Velvet-smooth tunes laced with a gritty, funk-fuelled edge.
- Their original tunes have been the source material for some of modern music’s biggest hits.
- Soul, proto-disco, and funky swagger from the bedroom balladeer.
Singles & EPs
- 2009
- 2003
More To Hear
- Celebrating a true R&B visionary.
About Barry White
The rich bass-baritone of Barry White and plush romance of The Love Unlimited Orchestra fooled many into believing his rise was preordained. But at birth (Galveston, Texas in 1944) and as he grew up in South Central Los Angeles, Barry Carter's destiny was no certain thing. He joined a gang, got sent to jail at 16 for stealing Cadillac tires, and upon release began planning a more stable life in music. There were years of behind-the-scenes producing and songwriting for West Coast vocal groups and soul acts. In 1973, he founded the Love Unlimited Orchestra, and really, only then was Barry White born. After forming the orchestra, whose 40-piece texture and luxurious strings suggested an abundance available to all, he attached his own voice to 1973's I've Got So Much to Give. Disco was becoming a pop force, and something about the mellow powerhouse was perfect for its flamboyant air of make-believe. You could dance to "Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" (1974) and "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me" (1977), but White also suited a more languorous mood. For audiences, he was an unlikely star who fed endless fantasies about what could happen if you only dreamed it so. The '90s were an extended victory lap, with cameo appearances and more hits, and though White died in 2003 at 58, the universal understanding that he was one of music's gods of love endures.
- HOMETOWN
- Galveston, TX, United States
- BORN
- September 12, 1944
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul