American singer-songwriter, record producer and composer Barry Eugene Carter, professionally known as Barry White, was born on 12th September 1944 in Galveston, Texas and passed away on 4th July 2003. He was married twice and had at least 9 children.
As a child, he learnt the piano and listened to his mother’s collection of classical music. In 1960, when he was 16, Barry went to prison for stealing and whilst in there, he used to listen to the radio, particularly Elvis’ song ‘It’s Now or Never’. He later claimed that this experience changed his life.
Once out of prison, Barry pursued a music career and joined several groups. During the rest of the 60s, he wrote various songs both for himself and other bands like ‘Too far to turn Around’, ‘Man ain’t nothin’/I don’t need It’, ‘Together Forever’ and ‘Under the influence of Love’, to name a few.
In 1972, Barry created the all-girl band ‘Love Unlimited’, who also acted as backing vocals in his songs. A year later, he formed the 40-piece orchestral band ‘The Love Unlimited Orchestra’, intended to back up ‘Love Unlimited’. That same year, however, Barry changed his mind and wrote and recorded the song ‘Love’s Theme’ for the group which went extremely well on the US charts, reaching number one. White continued releasing albums for the band until 1983, and afterwards they only acted as backing vocals for him.
Barry then proceeded as a solo artist and released various albums which contained many successful hits like ‘I’m gonna love you just a little more Baby’, ‘Never, never gonna give you Up’ and ‘You’re the first, the last, my Everything’, amongst others. In the next decade, Barry continued to release more albums, but they were not as successful as the previous ones. He did, however, have a couple of number one hits.
In all, White had 20 studio and 19 compilation albums, plus 60 singles. He also appeared as featured artist with 4 other singers including Quincy Jones and Tina Turner.
Apart from music, Barry also appeared in some TV shows and commercials, as well as voiced some characters in films. He also wrote an autobiography. White won 2 Grammy Awards in the year 2000, out of 11 nominations. A year after his death i.e. in 2004, Barry was posthumously inducted in the Dance Music Hall of Fame and in 2012 was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
As an adult, Barry suffered from several health problems and was also a heavy smoker. He died at the age of 58 from a cardiac arrest in 2003.
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