Meanwhile, White had started working with this girl group who hadn't done any singing professionally. Nunes had started cutting tracks for a concept album he was working on. Then three years later, Paul Politti, who also worked at Bronco, contacted him to tell him that Larry Nunes was interested in starting a business with him. Veteran arranger Gene Page, who would later arrange or co-arrange White's hits, helped him out, giving him work and non-repayable loans. When Bronco went out of business, White began doing independent production. They had three hit records, "It May Be Winter Outside," "I'm Under the Influence of Love," and "I Feel Love Coming On." They were huge hits in England. White had heard about a singer named Felice Taylor. Bob Keene and Larry Nunes - who later became White's spiritual advisor and true friend - wanted to cut a female act. White started working with the Bobby Fuller Four. White's first big hit came from an artist familiar to dancefloor denizens - Viola Wills, whose "Lost Without the Love of My Guy" went Top 20 R&B. One of the first groups he worked with was the Versatiles who later changed their name to the 5th Dimension. During this time, White flirted with the idea of being a recording artist, making a record for Bronco called "All in the Run of a Day." But he chose to stick with his A&R duties. White was hired for 40 dollars a week to do A&R for Keane's family of labels: Del-Fi, Mustang and Bronco. One of his labels, Mustang, was hot at the time with a group called the Bobby Fuller Four in 1966. Later he worked for various independent labels around Los Angeles, landing an A&R position with Bob Keane, the man responsible for the first pop recordings by Sam Cooke. The song was called "Little Girl" on a local L.A.
Shortly after moving from Texas to South Central Los Angeles, White made his recording debut at the tender age of 11, playing piano on Jesse Belvin's "Goodnight My Love." He made his first record when he was 16 with a group called the Upfronts. While there was a period where Barry White wasn't releasing records or making the pop charts, he did stay active touring and appearing on other artists' records including Quincy Jones' "The Secret Garden (The Seduction Suite)," Regina Belle, and rap star Big Daddy Kane's "All of Me." It's surprising to find out that such an illustrious career almost didn't happen because White wasn't interested in being a recording artist.īorn in Galveston, TX, Barry White grew up singing gospel songs with his mother and taught himself to play piano. During the '70s, Dinah Shore devoted a full hour of her daily syndicated Dinah! show to White. He was at home appearing on Soul Train, guesting with a full band on The Today Show, and appearing in cartoon form in various episodes of The Simpsons.
Say the name Barry White and you'd be hard pressed to follow it with the name of any other recording artist with such a huge, cross-sectional following.
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