Soul Man Barry White Dies
Fri Jul 4, 5:15 PM ET By Marcus Errico
Barry White, whose baritone pipes provided the soundtrack for many a make-out session during the past four decades, died Friday morning in Los Angeles, according to his longtime manager, Ned Shankman.
A publicist said White was 56, but most musical references list his birthdate as September 12, 1944, making him 58.
White passed away around 9:30 a.m. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The deep-voiced funkmeister had been in ill health for years. Chronic high blood pressure resulted in kidney failure, and White was admitted to the hospital last September to await a transplant. While undergoing dialysis treatment in May, he suffered a stroke that impaired his speech and left him partially paralyzed.
Known for warbling such get-it-on hits as "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe," "You're the First, the Last, My Everything," "Your Sweetness Is My Weakness," "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me," "I'm Gonna Love You, Just a Little More Baby" and "Love's Theme," White chalked up worldwide sales in excess of 100 million, including 106 gold albums, 41 platinum albums, 20 gold singles and 10 platinum singles. He also worked behind the scenes as a writer and producer.
White won his first two Grammys for his last studio album, 1999's Staying Power. His 'toon self famously saved Springfield, hometown of The Simpsons , in the fourth-season episode "Whacking Day," when his trademark vocals solved the town's serpent problem.
In May, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to rename a recreation center in the city's South Park neighborhood after White, who was born in Galveston, Texas, but grew up in the area.
Shankman says he and White had been working on a duets album, scheduled for release later this year on the Def Soul label.
White, who married and divorced twice, is survived by eight children--daughters La nece, Deniece, Nina, Shehera and 4-week-old Barriana, sons Barry Jr. and Darrell and stepson McKevin (the son of his second wife, singer Glodean James of the White-produced group Love Unlimited)--and his companion and Barriana's mother, Catherine Denton.