Welcome to a special “Wuv Week” edition of “Classic Album Tuesdays” where it’s time to “take off that brassiere dear”, for Mr. Barry White.
Now there are a lot of sexy albums I could have picked: Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On, Voodoo by D’Angelo, and how many children have been conceived by the mere sight of Herbie Mann’s Push Push album cover?
But when I think of sexy music, there is one figure who towers, about 6 ‘4”, to be exact, over the rest: Barry White. Known as “The Maestro” for his work as a producer and conductor, or by his less flattering moniker “The Walrus of Love,” Barry White was one of the preeminent soul singer-songwriters of his era. A two-time Grammy winner, he scored 20 gold and 10 platinum singles, led the 40-piece Love Unlimited Orchestra, and sold over 100 million records worldwide before his untimely death at 58 in 2003.
But who was Barry White? To me, he was the guy who guest-starred on The Simpsons, appearing in the iconic “Whacking Day” episode, as well as making a cameo in “Krusty Gets Kancelled.” In “Whacking Day,” Barry is invited to kick off the Whacking Day festivities, only to walk away in disgust after learning the celebration revolves around killing snakes.
Later, Lisa asks Barry to help save the snakes by using his powerful bass voice to lure them to safety inside the Simpson household. Why? Because Barry will do anything… for a lady
Most people remember Barry for his bass voice. As he put it in a 2000 interview with Conan O’Brien: “I woke up one morning when I was 14. I spoke to my mother, and I scared both of us.” A gifted singer and pianist from a young age, Barry’s life almost took a very different path.
At 16, growing up in Los Angeles, Barry was arrested for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires and spent four months in prison. While incarcerated, he heard Elvis Presley’s “It’s Now or Never,” a song he later said changed the course of his life.
In the following years, Barry sang in vocal groups like the Upfronts and worked with small independent labels, writing and producing songs such as “I Feel Love Comin’ On” and “It May Be Winter Outside (But in My Heart It’s Spring).”
His big break came with the discovery, and production, of the girl group Love Unlimited and their hit “Walkin’ in the Rain with the One I Love.” This success led to the formation of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, a 40-piece ensemble who scored a number-one instrumental hit with Barry’s composition “Love’s Theme,” a noted influence on the development of disco.
By 1973, Barry White shifted his focus to a solo career. Backed by the Love Unlimited Orchestra, he crafted lush, sensual ballads on his first two albums, I’ve Got So Much to Give and Stone Gon’, but it was his third album, today’s classic album, which would cement his legacy.
Can’t Get Enough (1974) wasn’t a reinvention; rather it was the payoff of momentum. Barry had a well-proven formula and style and was at the peak of his powers as a songwriter and producer. Which is why the album’s title track shot to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” reached #2. The album itself topped both the Billboard 200 and the R&B Albums chart, marking Barry’s full crossover into mainstream appeal with his catchiest and sexiest songs yet.
Earlier, I hinted at Barry’s influence on the development of disco, and tracks like “Don’t Make Me Wait Too Long,” with its rhythmic 4/4 pulse, show where the seeds were being sown. He also had a taste for two-part songs, here it’s the instrumental “Mellow Mood (Pts. 1 & 2)”, which bookends the album with enough orchestral oomph to make everyone on the planet pregnant.
With his mastery as a composer and conductor, it’s shocking that Barry only scored one film, the 1974 blaxploitation movie Together Brothers. Everything he does is so big, so dramatic, and so cinematic, you can feel every note in your nether regions.
What I find so endearing about Barry is that, offstage, he considered himself a shy introvert, yet when you hear him on record, he sounds like the second coming of Casanova. He expresses his art with such passion and confidence. That’s a true artist and Can’t Get Enough is a true classic.
Favorite Tracks: “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” “Oh Love, Well We Finally Made It,” “You’re the First, My Last, My Everything”