White Music: The Barry White Story

White Music is the first full length biography of the maestro, Barry White. White was born in Galveston in 1944. Melvin White, Barry’s father, was already married with two children of his own; something of which his mother Sadie Carter had no knowledge. Sadie and baby Barry soon returned to Los Angeles where a brother Darryl joined the family 16 months later.She and her two sons made the best of their lives and lived happily in the Watts area of Los Angeles. As soon as he could walk and talk Barry displayed a musical bent, while Darryl became a young thug, terrorising the neighbours. Sadie bought a piano, then a gramophone to help her son develop. He dazzled the church choir with his talents and was running it by the age of 12.Barry’s life changed forever when his voice broke at 14. And from that moment, armed with a voice like no one else on the planet, he began a 15-year struggle to make it as a professional musician. Along the way he went to prison, got married, fathered five children and got divorced. Then he met his second wife Glodean and suddenly the path forward became clear. His first hit record was for his girl band, Love Unlimited. It was called Walking In The Rain With The One I Love. It was the song that made Barry White. His solo career took off after he got together with arranger, Gene Page and recorded an album called I’ve Got So Much To Give followed by Stone Gon’ and Can’t Get Enough. The albums made Barry White an international star and gave him the hit single that defined his life – You’re The First, The Last, My Everything. For the next five years Barry White produced hit album after hit album for himself, Love Unlimited and the Love Unlimited Orchestra establishing him as one of the greats of music. He continued to perform around the world playing to huge audiences until his death in 2003 at the age of 58.