Released: April 1979
I’ve learned an important lesson over the years: be wary of musicians making songs about how much they love to sing. Most of the time it means they’re either full of themselves or trying to paper over some pain.
Barry White was doing the latter. Tears of a clown type shit.
For nearly a decade he’d been tethered to 20th Century Fox’s music label and that record deal was coming to an end. Eager to get out of the contract and jump ship to CBS Records (a deal he would later regret), White did a time-honored tradition for music artists: throw together a crappy album to satisfy contractual obligations.
Released just six months after the massively successful The Man (A-), I Love To Sing the Songs I Sing is indeed a contractual obligation LP without much heart or effort.
Unsurprisingly, the title track is lame. Not bad, just lame. It has some pep cuz it apes the Motown Sound that enamored a young White. At least it’s short at only 2:50.
“Girl, What’s Your Name” finds White regressing back to his early 70s motifs. That music was cool for the time, but doing this stuff in 1979 was a retreat; an example of mailing it in and coasting.
Although not as bad, “Once Upon a Time (You Were a Friend of Mine)” is still lazy and too long. “Oh Me, Oh My (I'm Such a Lucky Guy)” combines the worst of the previous two songs being both lazy and a retreat. Worst song on the album.
FINALLY, some excitement and dare I say, heart, with “I Can't Leave You Alone”. This song sounds contemporary and sounds like what White should have been doing at this time, if he had his whole soul into this LP. The song just busts in strutting on a heavy bass and leaves after just 3:25 having done its quick damage. In between White and Love Unlimited are showing off their pipes and sound like they’re having fun.
In the end, it’s not a great song, but it’s certainly enjoyable and sticks out like a delightfully sore thumb on this otherwise mediocre album.
“Call Me Baby” is a weird song. It sounds like it’s in a hurry to get nowhere. Y’know, hurry up and wait. The song is twitchy, frantic even. Yet it goes on for eight minutes and has no engaging vocals or instrumental solos. The final three minutes do have somewhat interesting instrumentation. Could have made for a good, short instrumental or interlude.
The album concludes on what can be considered a masterpiece for this LP: “How Did You Know It Was Me?”. It takes its time serving up a laid back groove that is simultaneously danceable yet chill. Some nice cruise ship music.
ALBUM GRADE: D
Whoa boy. This bombed in every way. No hit singles. Copies sat on the store shelves. Easily the worst Barry White album yet released. Not that Barry cared. He was heading out the door to a new label no matter what.
Song Scores
I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing: 6/10
Girl, What's Your Name: 3/10
Once Upon a Time (You Were a Friend of Mine): 5/10
Oh Me, Oh My (I'm Such a Lucky Guy): 2/10
I Can't Leave You Alone: 7/10
Call Me Baby: 4/10
How Did You Know It Was Me?: 7.5/10