Barry White

White was born Barry Eugene Carter on September 12, 1944, in Galveston, Texas. His father was Melvin A. White, and his mother was Sadie Marie Carter. Unbeknownst to his mother, his father was already married to another woman. She gave her son her last name. Upon seeing her last name of Carter on his son's birth certificate, Melvin scratched Carter out and wrote his own last name of White. He grew up in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles, California. He was the older of two children; his brother Darryl was 13 months younger. White grew up listening to his mother's classical music collection and first took to the piano, emulating what he heard on the records. White has often been credited with playing piano, at age 11, on Jesse Belvin's 1956 hit single, "Goodnight My Love". However, in a 1995 interview with the Boston Herald, White denied writing or arranging the song. He believed the story was an exaggeration by journalists. While White and Belvin lived in the same neighborhood, Belvin was 12 years older than White. White attended Jacob A. Riis High School, an all-boys academy in southeast Los Angeles. White's voice deepened suddenly when he was 13 or 14. White also told the BBC that this happened when he was 13. White was jailed for four months at the age of 16 for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires (equivalent to about $ now). While in jail, he listened to Elvis Presley singing "It's Now or Never" on the radio, an experience he later credited with changing the course of his life. White had another moment of inspiration on his 18th birthday, which also was the first day back for his graduating year of high school. He skipped class to walk to Capitol Records headquarters in Hollywood and stood across the street from the office staring for hours. Seeing the liveliness of the area it inspired him to work in Hollywood, in the entertainment industry, despite not knowing how to read or write music. ==Music career==

1960s After his release from jail, White left gang life and began a musical career at the beginning of the 1960s in singing groups. He first released "Too Far to Turn Around" in 1960 as part of the Upfronts before working for various small independent labels in Los Angeles. He also recorded several singles under his own name in the early 1960s, backed by vocal groups the Atlantics (for the Rampart and Faro labels) and the Majestics (for the Linda and Jordan labels). in his 1999 autobiography, White confirmed the song had been produced by Gene Page, who had worked with him on many of his 1970s successes. In 1965, White produced "Feel Aw Right" by the Bel Cantos, released on the Downey label. He recorded his debut single, "Man Ain't Nothin'"/"I Don't Need It", released under the name "Lee Barry" on Downey in 1966. He also co-wrote "Together Forever", released by Pat Powdrill & the Powerdrills in 1967. In the mid-'60s, Bob Keane of Del-Fi Records hired him as an A&R man for his new Bronco Records imprint, and White started working with the label's artists, including Viola Wills and the Bobby Fuller Four, as a songwriter, session musician, and arranger. White also wrote "Doin' the Banana Split" for TV bubblegum pop act the Banana Splits in 1968. In 1969, White was signed by Forward Records of Los Angeles, a division of Transcontinental Entertainment Corporation, as a producer. 1970s as producer In 1972, White got his big break producing a girl group he had discovered called Love Unlimited. However, White had other plans, and in 1973, he released a single with "Love's Theme" (written by him and played by the orchestra), which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Later, in 1974, he made the first album of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, Rhapsody in White, containing "Love's Theme". White would continue to make albums with the orchestra, achieving some successes such as: "Rhapsody in White", "Satin Soul", "Forever in Love", "Midnight Groove", "My Sweet Summer Suite", Remake of "Theme From King Kong". The orchestra ceased to make albums in 1983 but continued to support White as a backing band. 1970s solo career White wanted to work with another act, but decided to work with a solo male artist. While working on a few demos for a male singer, he made three song demos of himself singing and playing, but Nunes heard them and insisted that he re-record and release them himself as a solo recording artist. He then wrote several other songs and recorded them for what eventually became an entire album of music. He was going to use the name "White Heat", but decided on using his given name instead. White was still hesitating up to the time the label copy was made. It eventually became White's first solo album, ''I've Got So Much to Give'' (1973). The album spawned the singles the title track and his first solo chart hit, "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby", and scored five Top 10 hits and a No. 1 for "You're the First, the Last, My Everything". and in the US, "Dr. Love", "Mr. Love", "Prince of Pillow Talk", "Ambassador of Romance", "King of Disco" "The Maestro" or "Guru of Love". After six years, White left 20th Century in 1979 to launch his own label, Unlimited Gold, with CBS/Columbia Records. 1980s Although his prominence in commercial charts declined as the disco era came to an end, he maintained a loyal following throughout his career. Despite several albums over the next three years, he failed to repeat his earlier successes, with no singles managing to reach the Billboard Hot 100, except for 1982's "Change", climbing into the Billboard R&B Top 20 where it reached a peak of No. 12. After four years, he signed with A&M Records, and with the release of 1987's The Right Night & Barry White, the single entitled "Sho' You Right" made it to the Billboard R&B charts, peaking at No. 17. In 1989, he released The Man Is Back! and with it had three top 40 singles on the Billboard R&B charts: "Super Lover", which made it to No. 34, "I Wanna Do It Good to Ya", which made it to No. 26, and "When Will I See You Again", which made it to No. 32. 1990s A 1970s nostalgia fad allowed White to enjoy a renewed wave of popularity in the 1990s. After participating in the song "The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)" from Quincy Jones's 1989 album Back on the Block, White mounted an effective comeback with several albums, each more successful than the one before. He returned to chart prominence in 1991 with the album Put Me in Your Mix, which reached No. 8 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart and the song by the same name reached No. 2 on the Billboard R&B singles chart. In 1994, White released The Icon Is Love, which went to No. 1 on the Billboard R&B album charts, and the single "Practice What You Preach" gave him his first No. 1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart in almost 20 years. In 1996, White recorded the duet "In Your Wildest Dreams" with Tina Turner. 1996 also saw the release of Space Jam and its soundtrack, on which White had a duet with Chris Rock, called "Basketball Jones", a remake of Cheech & Chong's "Basketball Jones" from 1973. White's final album, 1999's Staying Power, resulted in his last hit song "Staying Power", which placed No. 45 on the Billboard R&B charts. The single won him two Grammy Awards in the categories Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. His autobiography, Love Unlimited, written with Marc Eliot, was published in 1999 by Broadway Books. ==Acting career==

Over the course of his career, White occasionally did voice-over work for television and movies. He voiced the character Brother Bear in the film Coonskin (1975). White voiced himself twice in the fourth season of The Simpsons, in the episodes "Whacking Day" and "Krusty Gets Kancelled". White played the role of a bus driver for a Prodigy commercial in 1995, and he also portrayed the voice of a rabbit in a Good Seasons salad-dressing-mix commercial, singing a song called "You Can't Bottle Love". In addition, he narrated car commercials, including for Oldsmobile, and later on, Jeep. White also provided voice-over for Arby's Restaurant commercials on television and radio to promote its Market Fresh menu. White narrated Apple's first iBook commercial. White made three guest appearances on the comedy-drama television series Ally McBeal, as his music was often featured on the show in dream sequences. == Personal life ==

Marriages White was first married to his childhood sweetheart, identified only as "Mary" in his autobiography, by the time he was 19. They separated in 1969 and later divorced. In 1974, White married singer Glodean James. The couple collaborated on the 1981 album Barry & Glodean. Although estranged from White for over a decade, as his widow she was made sole executor of his estate. Children White had nine children. They had four children together. Denton also claimed that she was owed money and personal items that White had promised to give her. Paternity tests revealed that he was not the father of her child and Denton subsequently lost her court case. ==Health problems and death==

White was obese for most of his adult life. He reportedly weighed up to . While undergoing dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant in May 2003, White suffered a severe stroke, which forced him to retire from public life. He also suffered multiple seizures in his last few weeks. White's unstable health prevented him from receiving a new kidney, and he died of kidney failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on July 4, 2003, at the age of 58. His remains were cremated and the ashes were scattered in the ocean off the California coast. ==Legacy==

On September 20, 2004, White was posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York. On September 12, 2013, which would have been White's 69th birthday, he was posthumously awarded the 2,506th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6914 Hollywood Boulevard in the category of recording. The show Counting Cars paid tribute to White by restoring the last car he owned for his widow, Glodean. In an obituary referring to White by his nickname, "The Walrus of Love", the BBC recalled "the rich timbres of one of the most distinctive soul voices of his generation, about which it was once said: 'If chocolate fudge cake could sing, it would sound like Barry White.'" In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked White at number 56 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. == Awards and nominations ==

White was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, winning two for Staying Power at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000. ==Discography==

;Studio albums • ''I've Got So Much to Give'' (1973) • ''Stone Gon''' (1973) • Also see "The Love Unlimited Orchestra" formed by Barry White with classic songs such as "''Love's Theme''" (1973) • ''Can't Get Enough'' (1974) • Just Another Way to Say I Love You (1975) • Let the Music Play (1976) • Is This Whatcha Wont? (1976) • Barry White Sings for Someone You Love (1977) • The Man (1978) • I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing (1979) • The Message Is Love (1979) • Sheet Music (1980) • Barry & Glodean (With Glodean White) (1981) • Beware! (1981) • Change (1982) • Dedicated (1983) • The Right Night & Barry White (1987) • The Man Is Back! (1989) • Put Me in Your Mix (1991) • The Icon Is Love (1994) • Staying Power (1999) ==References==