If you think you know Barry White, that low, smooth-talking lover
man from those '70's hits such as Can't Get Enough Of Your Love Babe and
You're The First, The Last, My Everything, that's just one-third of
what he was up to during that decade. The producer-writer-arranger had a
grand vision of what he wanted to accomplish, one that developed slowly
over several years and then exploded with a huge run of multi-million
sellers. The other two parts of his empire are featured in these
collections, both of which feature his writing and production.
Love
Unlimited was actually where it all started. They were a trio of women,
one of whom became White's wife, who had a hit called Walkin' In The
Rain With The One I Love in 1972. It was unique, featured the classic
soul female trio but with a funky update. Then there were sound effects
of rain, and of all things, a phone conservation between two lovers. The
male voice, well that was Barry himself, and fans went nuts for that
sexy voice. The song went gold, and while he went about finding new hits
for the trio, he also got signed to do his own solo tracks based on his
guest appearance. That of course went crazy, starting in 1973. White
put together a large group to accompany his hits and Love Unlimited too.
It featured top-level L.A. session players, and film orchestra players
too. It became known as the Love Unlimited Orchestra.
White's
next move was to get the Orchestra on record. Some of the flip sides of
Love Unlimited's singles were instrumentals, and soon White started
giving the orchestra the A-sides, with December of 1973 seeing Love's
Theme do the most surprising thing. An orchestral, early disco
instrumental, it hit #1, and now White had three different hit-making
acts, all under one roof. He was in charge of it all, and pumped out
gold record at an alarming rate, becoming just as big internationally.
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