Barry White Dead at 58

[Lavindathar]

Los Angeles: Velvet-voiced R&B crooner Barry White, renowned for his lush baritone and lyrics that oozed sex appeal on songs such as Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe, died this morning, his manager said.

White, who had suffered kidney failure from years of high blood pressure, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre around 9:30 am (2300 AEST), said manager Ned Shankman. He was 58.

White had been undergoing dialysis treatment and had been hospitalised since last September.

His work epitomised seductive disco music, also known as "make out" music. The heavyset musician enjoyed three decades of fame for songs like You're the First, the Last, My Everything and It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me.

White's deep, butter-smooth vocals and throbbing musical tempos emphasised his songs' sexually charged verbal foreplay. His 1975 song Love Serenade began with the purring, first-person lyrics: "I want you the way you came into the world/ I don't want to feel no clothes ..."


Although his popularity peaked in the 1970s, White received belated recognition for his work in 2000, when he won his first two Grammys for best male and traditional R&B vocal performance for the song Staying Power.

Born September 12, 1944, in Galveston, Texas, to a single mother, White and his younger brother, Darryl, spent most of their childhood in south central Los Angeles. He said he had a lifelong love for music. During his early teenage years, he began singing in a Baptist church choir and was quickly promoted to director.

In 1990, White told Ebony magazine that his voice changed overnight from the squeaky tones of a preadolescent to the rumbling bass that made him famous.

"It scared me and my mother when I spoke that morning," he said. "It was totally unexpected. My chest rattled. I mean vibrations. My mother was staring at me, and I was staring at her. The next thing I knew, her straight face broke into a beautiful smile. Tears came down her face and she said, 'My son's a man now'".

He was jailed at age 16 for stealing tyres, a punishment he credited with helping him straighten out his life and dedicate his efforts to music.

Inspired by the Elvis Presley song It's Now or Never, White joined the Upfronts soul group as bass singer and cut six singles. For several years, he stayed away from performing and focused on work behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer.

He married a childhood sweetheart, identified only as Mary in his autobiography, and fathered four children with her before they separated in 1969 and later divorced.

White discovered the female trio Love Unlimited - which included his future second wife, Glodean James - and produced their million-selling 1972 single Walkin' in the Rain With the One I Love.

The next year, White returned to performing with the song I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby, which topped the R&B chart and hit No 3 on the pop chart.

He is credited by some for helping launch the disco phenomenon with his orchestral Love's Theme in 1973, which he conducted with his group, The Love Unlimited Orchestra.

In 1974, his album Can't Get Enough climbed to the top of the pop charts on the strength of the signature hits Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe and You're the First, the Last, My Everything.

That year he also married James. The couple had four children together and collaborated on the 1981 album Barry & Glodean, which featured the songs I Want You and You're the Only One for Me. They divorced in 1988, but he said they always remained good friends.

White suffered a family tragedy in 1983 when his brother, Darryl, was shot and killed in a dispute with a neighbour over change from a $20 bill. In his 1999 autobiography, Love Unlimited: Insights on Life and Love, Barry White said music likely spared him a similar fate.

After working on more than a dozen albums in the 1970s, his career waned over the next decade as he attempted small comebacks with the albums The Right Night & Barry White (1987) and The Man is Back! (1989.)

He enjoyed a larger resurgence with 1994 album The Icon Is Love, and his ballad Practice What You Preach became his first No 1 hit in 17 years. Toward the end of the 1990s, his songs were regularly featured on the Fox comedy series Ally McBeal and he made an appearance on the show as himself.

His single Staying Power, off a 1999 album of the same name, won White two Grammys and proved he hadn't tamed his libidinous lyrics. "Put on my favourite dress, the one that oozes sexiness," he cooed in the title track's opening lines.

That year White's chronic blood pressure problem forced him to cancel several live performances with the group Earth, Wind & Fire and he was briefly hospitalised.

White's survivors include eight children, grandchildren, and his companion Catherine Denton.


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Source : http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/...179190963.html


It's a shame that, he was an excellent singer, who created works of art.

[Arledrian]

This is really sad - I liked Barry White a lot. Thanks for posting this mate, it's a nice little bio. May he rest in peace

[Chewbacca]

R.I.P. Barry White, romantic evenings at home will never be the same thanks to you.

[Gammit]

Crap! RIP, Barry.

[LordKathen]

Very sad indeed.

[Masklinn]

May he rest in peace.
His songs are just awesome and will hopefully stay around for some more decades. We will remember him through his voice and music.

Still, he will be missed...

[mysticelt]

I remember him everyday. His voice welcomes me on the computer and talks to me every time mail arrives. I have been dreading this day for months - he will be missed.

[Timber Loftis]

Can there ever possibly be such a smooth voice? He's got that one voice that makes women's clothes and underthings just melt away. He was young, too.

Rest peacefully.

[Lavindathar]

Originally posted by Chewbacca: romantic evenings at home will never be the same thanks to you.

I think that sums it up perfectly! Everytime the lights are dimmed on TV, and a song is played, it's always Mr.White.

Who remembers the Whacking Day episode of The Simpsons?

He was awesome!

[Horatio]

He will be greatly missed :'(

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