Barry White, whose deep voice and lushly orchestrated songs added up to soundtracks for seduction, died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 58.
A statement released by his manager, Ned Shankman, said the cause was kidney failure caused by hypertension.
In his songs, White created a fantasy world of opulence and desire. As strings played hovering chords, guitars echoed off into the distance, and drums provided a muffled heartbeat, White spoke in his bottomless bass and crooned the reassuring sentiments of hits like Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe, You're the First, the Last, My Everything and It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Songs like Love's Theme, his 1973 instrumental hit for the Love Unlimited Orchestra, ushered in the disco era, and through the '70s, he became a pop fixture whose albums were destined for countless bedrooms. His career rebounded in the 1980s and '90s as the children of his original fans rediscovered his music.
White's childhood was as rough as his songs were smooth. He was born in Galveston, Texas, where he learned gospel singing from his mother and taught himself to play piano and organ. After his family moved to Los Angeles, he made his recording debut at 11, playing piano on the Jesse Belvin hit Goodnight My Love. But living in the poor neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, he was also in and out of trouble, and in 1960 he spent seven months in jail for stealing tires.
According to White's 1999 autobiography, Love Unlimited: Insights on Life and Love (Broadway Books), while in jail he heard Elvis Presley's hit It's Now or Never, and decided to give up crime. His brother Darryl was shot and killed in a dispute over small change in 1983.
He became a singer and pianist with a Los Angeles rhythm-and-blues group, the Upfronts, and helped arrange Bob and Earl's 1963 hit, The Harlem Shuffle, later remade by the Rolling Stones. He toured with the rhythm-and-blues singer Jackie Lee. During a stop in Alabama, he called a white operator "baby" while phoning home. Moments later, the police pulled up next to his phone booth and threatened him with jail if he did it again.
In the mid-1960s, White worked as a talent scout for Mustang Records, where he signed a trio of female singers, Love Unlimited. He produced their 1972 hit, Walking in the Rain With the One I Love and went on to marry one of them, Glodean James, who survives him. She was his second wife; he had already had four children with his first.
In 1973, White began his solo career, starting a long string of hits with I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Baby. Along with his own songs, he wrote and produced hits for Love Unlimited and the Love Unlimited Orchestra, and performed at elaborate concerts, at one point leading an 80-woman orchestra.
After disco peaked in the late 1970s, White's career ebbed. But his songs and the image he had created proved durable. Rappers and dance-music acts including 50 Cent, the Beastie Boys and Daft Punk have sampled his music. And in the late 1980s, he began a career resurgence. He appeared on Quincy Jones' Back on the Block album in 1990, and with the rapper Big Daddy Kane in 1991.
In 1994, he had an album that sold 2 million selling copies, The Icon Is Love, and his 1999 album, "Staying Power," won two rhythm-and-blues Grammy Awards. His "All-Time Greatest Hits" album, released in 1994, has also sold 1 million copies.
His voice was used on episodes of The Simpsons, and he appeared on Ally McBeal and in a widely broadcast Apple Computer commercial. He had been working on an album of duets to be released later this year.
White was hospitalized last September for kidney failure and had been undergoing dialysis. Along with his wife, who no longer lived with him, he is survived by his daughters La nece, Deniece, Nina, Shaheara and Barriana, who was born four weeks ago; his sons Barry Jr. and Darrell; his stepson, McKevin; his companion, Catherine Denton, the mother of Barriana; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
In a market in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, customers flock to Ache Moussa’s stall to have their long plaits smeared with a special paste in an age-old ritual. Each strand of hair, from the root to the end, is slathered in a traditional mixture of cherry seeds, cloves and chebe seeds, the most important ingredient of all. Users say the recipe makes their hair grow longer and more lustrous. Local and natural hair products are gaining popularity across Africa as people turn away from commercial cosmetics. Moussa applies the mixture and shapes the client’s locks into a gourone — a traditional hairstyle consisting of
‘ONE FELL SWOOP’: Overturning a landmark ruling that said judges should defer to experts would ‘cause a massive shock to the legal system,’ a dissenting opinion said Prosecutors overstepped in charging Jan. 6, 2021, rioters with obstruction for trying to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election, the US Supreme Court said on Friday, throwing hundreds of cases into doubt, while another controversial ruling struck down 40 years of legal precedent on federal agencies’ ability to regulate critical issues. The matter was brought to the court through an appeal by former police officer Joseph Fischer, a supporter of former US president Donald Trump who entered the Capitol with hundreds of others in 2021. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said prosecutors’ interpretation of the law would “criminalize
The US yesterday wrapped up its first multidomain exercise with Japan and South Korea in the East China Sea, a step forward in Washington’s efforts to enhance and lock in its security partnerships with key Asian allies in the face of growing threats from North Korea and China. The three-day Freedom Edge increased the sophistication of previous exercises with simultaneous air and naval drills geared toward improving joint ballistic-missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities. The exercise, which is expected to expand in years to come, was also intended to improve the countries’ abilities to share missile warnings —
‘APOCALYPTIC : An UN official said that Lebanon was ‘the flashpoint beyond all flashpoints,’ and a conflict that involved it would draw in Syria and other nations Israel on Wednesday said that it does not want war in Lebanon, but could send its neighbor “back to the Stone Age.” The border between the two countries has seen daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants since the attack on Israel by Hezbollah’s ally Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which triggered the war in Gaza. Fears those exchanges could escalate have grown in the past few weeks as cross-border attacks intensified and after Israel revealed it had approved plans for a Lebanon offensive, prompting new threats from Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said