Barry White Can't Get Enough

For those of you that remember the music and song-craft of Barry White, you remember a performer that could touch the heart of an emotion, and make it stand out with a unique, often breathy, bass vocal. In the ’70s, almost everything Barry White released became an instant hit. In fact, there’s a collection of singles that achieved gold and platinum status. Of course, his albums did quite well. But most of us remember him primarily by his string of radio hits that still resonate because his voice and delivery was never replicated. Barry White’s first song, “I’m Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Baby” opened the door to his fame. It seemed effortless for his talent to move forward with songs like “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up”, “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love, Babe”, “You’re The First, The Last, My Everything”, and the beautiful “Love’s Theme” instrumental hit. Those are but a few of his classic hits.

Universal Music Distribution's Icon series dealt with Barry White's extensive back catalog in two forms. This one, a single-disc compilation (the other was a two-disc set), stays true to the Icon series format with 12 tracks and minimal packaging. It’s a decent sampler, but it’s nowhere near definitive and it doesn’t distill White’s work to its essence (an impossible task when limited to one disc). Several of the man’s most popular singles are here, including “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me,” “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby,” and “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything.” This merely scratches the surface.

It took quite a while for a definitive Barry White compilation to hit the market, but All-Time Greatest Hits – part of Mercury's Funk Essentials series – finally filled the bill in 1995. Boasting a full 20 tracks from White's heyday of 1973-1978, more than half of which made the R&B Top Ten, All-Time Greatest Hits is easily the most generous single-disc White collection on the market. It includes the edited single versions, not the full-length album tracks, which actually makes for a more digestible introduction to White's achievements.

Barry White turned into such iconic figure that it’s odd to hear his beginnings on his 1973 debut I’ve Got So Much to Give. In a sense, his sound is fully formed – there’s no mistaking his velvet baritone or his lush, string-draped surrounding, particularly on the album’s closing “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby,” a song so seductive it set the pace for the rest of his career. Still, behind that creamy drapery it’s possible to hear a strong debt to Isaac Hayes throughout I’ve Got So Much to Give, particularly when the whole affair opens a slow, steady, eight-minute crawl through “Standing in the Shadows of Love” that strips all the bounciness out of the Supremes original, just like how all of Hayes reworkings of ‘60s pop hits turned the hit versions inside out on Hot Buttered Soul. Barry may be following in Isaac’s footsteps, but he winds up on his own path, one that isn’t quite as ambitious, one that is fairly hellbent on romance to the exclusion of everything else.

The Best of the Love Unlimited Orchestra collects 15 tracks by Barry White's groundbreaking instrumental support outfit. Their sound as assembled by White – thick layers of sweet strings, pulsing beats, chunky wah-wah guitars, plus tinkling piano and gently swelling horns – played a huge role in creating the blueprint for disco, not to mention countless porn soundtracks. In addition to backing White and his female protégées Love Unlimited, the Love Unlimited Orchestra also made their own recordings, naturally with White at the helm. Although they recorded up to 1983, their commercial heyday lasted from 1974-1977, when they charted regularly on the pop, R&B, and disco/club listings. They even scored a number one pop hit right out of the box with 1974's "Love's Theme," a watershed record in the history of disco. That's here, of course, plus the Orchestra's other chart hits: "Satin Soul," "Rhapsody in White," "Forever in Love," "My Sweet Summer Suite," "Bring It on Up," and their theme from the 1977 remake of King Kong.