Barry White

Barry Eugene White (né Carter; September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003) was an American R&B, soul and disco singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer. A two-time Grammy Award winner known for his bass voice and romantic image, his greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, who made the #1 hit "Love's Theme" written by White. His music contains elements of multiple genres, such as R&B, soul, and disco; this is evident in his two biggest hits: "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "You're the First, the Last, My Everything".

White recorded 20 studio albums during the course of his career, while multiple versions and compilations were released worldwide that were certified gold, 41 of which also attained platinum status. White had 20 gold and 10 platinum singles, with worldwide record sales in excess of 100 million records, and is one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

White was born Barry Eugene Carter on September 12, 1944, in Galveston, Texas. His mother was Sadie Marie Carter, and his father was Melvin A. White, who, unbeknownst to his mother, was married. Upon seeing her last name on his son's birth certificate, Melvin scratched that out and wrote White. Although his parents never married, they had a second child, Darryl, who was 13 months younger.

White grew up in the Watts neighborhood of South Los Angeles, California, listening to his mother's classical music collection. He took to the piano to emulate what he heard on the records. White said: "My mother had never even told me she could play, but when I walked in the front door and heard her playing Beethoven, it was the most amazing thing, to this day, that I have ever experienced. It was so emotional that I had to play piano." White has often been credited with playing piano on Jesse Belvin's 1956 hit single, "Goodnight My Love" at age 11, but White denied that and said it was an exaggeration because Belvin, who was 12 years older, lived in the same neighborhood.

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. He recalled: ", I had a normal squeaky kid voice. Then as a teenager, that completely changed. My mother cried because she knew her baby boy had become a man." He further recalled: "I woke up one morning … I spoke to my mother, and I scared both of us."

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.