Released: October 1978
After Barry White Sings For Someone You Love was a platinum success, Barry White was firing on all cylinders again commercially. The Man continued his newfound hot streak as it topped the R&B album charts for three weeks, poked up to #36 on the pop side of things, and went platinum.
Sadly, it’d be a loooooong time before Barry had an album this successful again.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
This LP was truly welcomed because White got a little more involved with the writing (three of the seven songs are his). And excitingly, this album did see White (mostly) tread new ground production wise instead of repeating the heavy groove formula of Sings For Someone You Love.
But there is a groove here.
Look no further than the album opener, “Look At Her”. It is basically a Love Unlimited Orchestra jam. White sings very little on the song handing proceedings over to the band. His most memorable contribution is during the intro telling a young man wanting to dance with his lady that that’s ok, “so long as you ain’t slow dancin’, junior.”
That line is delivered with the right tone of seriousness and humor. Cracks me up.
The jam continues on “Your Sweetness Is My Weakness”, which was the big hit in the US reaching #2 R&B. It also had a disappointing #60 pop showing. This is a curious piece of music that at points seems to be conflicted with itself, especially the single edited version. This is a song that only makes sense when allowed to unfurl across the full eight minutes, not any truncated edition.
Also, White had written this song years before and was originally recorded by Jay Dee in 1974. The two versions are pretty different and White’s is the superior one. If you’re gonna mine old material, you’d better make it better.
After that funky disco workout, the dancing continues with “Sha La La (Means I Love You)”, White’s most percussive Latin workout yet.
The first 1:40 are spent building up suspense as a veritable street festival is underway before some horns trumpet to signal it’s time for White and Love Unlimited to sing. Although not funky, this song still shows Barry White 2.0 in effect. The strings that had typically been so prominent in White’s early work are forced totally to the background on this song.
Well that’s it for the sizzling Side One. Time for the sultry Side Two.
“September When I First Met You” is fantastic. Straight up cruising music, whether in your Cadillac or in your yacht.
Okay, there’s a brief return to the sizzle with “It's Only Love Doing Its Thing”, which is some filthy funk.
And now we’re back to the sultry with White’s cover of Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are”. Y’all are allowed your own opinions, but EYE think Barry jacks this song from Billy. (And I do enjoy Joel’s original version). I mean, it’s kind of not fair considering it’s Barry White, who rarely did cover songs, and Joel is the dude who he decides to victimize.
Barry spends the first 90 seconds or so delivering one of his classic raps before giving maybe the best ballad performance to this point of his career. The only real competition is “I’ve Got So Much to Give”.
And just for good measure there’s a sexy sax solo around the four-minute mark and the sax would continue cropping up throughout the rest of the song. And Love Unlimited are giving some aahs so soft and subtle that they blend in with the strings.
Released as a single in the US, the song bombed (#45 R&B, #102 pop), but in the UK it was a good hit (#12).
Lastly there’s “Early Years”. I love this song because Barry was now 34 years old, had seen some shit in his life, and decided to sing about how time passes by. This is some O.G. smoking a cigarette music.
ALBUM GRADE: A-
Besides being a pleasure musically, this is my favorite Barry White album because it was the only one my dad had in his vinyl collection that I listened to growing up. He did have a greatest hits CD of ole Barry that I had listened to before. Being a greatest hits compiltion, most of the songs were edited.
So I was shocked to see that “Your Sweetness Is My Weakness” was actually eight minutes long, not 4:30. And that “Just the Way You Are” was seven minutes, not a little over three and a half. This was like opening up Pandora’s Box for me. If these songs were edited what else was being cut short out there?!
Apparently a lot. And thus began a young Curtis’ musical journey to acquire original albums instead of relying upon greatest hits CDs.
So maybe my nostalgia influences my thoughts here, but that’s how things go.
Song Scores
Look At Her: 7/10
Your Sweetness Is My Weakness: 8/10
Sha La La (Means I Love You): 8.5/10
September When I First Met You: 8.5/10
It's Only Love Doing Its Thing: 8/10
Just The Way You Are: 9/10
Early Years: 8.5/10