Day After Day #259: Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe (1974)

A lot of people try to act cool, but some people don't have to fake it. Barry White was one cool mofo.

Born in Texas in 1944, White said he was living in Los Angeles when his voice suddenly dropped in his early teens. A few years later, he was sent to jail for four months for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires. While in jail, he heard Elvis Presley's "Now or Never" on a radio and was inspired to begin a musical career when he was released. He began singing in different groups in the early '60s and then released several singles under his own name while also working for small indie labels in Los Angeles. He began working as a producer, songwriter, session musician and arranger.

In 1972, White began producing a girl group he had discovered called Love Unlimited, which also served as his backing singers. He produced their first album, which released a single, "Walkin' in the Rain with the One I Love," that reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group had several more hits throughout the '70s.  

White created the Love Unlimited Orchestra in 1973, a 40-piece group that was to back up Love Unlimited, but then he released "Love's Theme," an instrumental written by White and played by the orchestra. The song reached #1 on the Billboard Pop charts, and its combination of funk guitar and strings set the stage for disco, which emerged in 1974. 

At first White had no plans to become a solo act, but after making some demos, he was convinced to make an album of his own songs. His first album, 1973's I've Got So Much to Give, which featured the hit "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby"; it went to #1 on the R&B charts and #3 on the Pop chart. A second album was released in '73, Stone Gon', which hit #20 on the Billboard 200 and featured the single "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up," which hit #7 on the Hot 100. 

The prolific White followed up in 1974 with Can't Get Enough, which featured one of his signature songs, "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe." Backed by the Love Unlimited Orchestra, White starts the song with his trademark low bass rumble of speaking voice:

"I've heard people say that/Too much of anything is not good for you, baby/But I don't know about that/As many times as we've loved and/We've shared love and made love, it's/It doesn't seem to me like it's enough/It's just not enough of it/Uh, it's just not enough/Oh, oh babe/Oh babe."

Then the orchestra kicks in as White moves into loverman mode.

"My darling, I can't get enough of your love, babe/Girl, I don't know, I don't know why, can't get enough of your love, babe/Oh, some things I can't get used to, no matter how I try/It's like the more you give, the more I want and baby, that's no lie/Oh no, babe, tell me, what can I say? What am I gonna do?/How should I feel when everything is you?/What kind of love is this that you're givin' me?/Is it in your kiss or just because you're sweet?"

Reportedly, White wrote the song one night after he was unable to sleep. He decided to write a song about his new wife Glodean James, who was one of the Love Unlimited singers. The song went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts, with its pure early '70s Philly soul power. 

White went on to have many more pop and R&B hits and due to his large frame and smooooooth voice, he became synonymous with romance and love songs. Things slowed down for White in the '80s, but he bounced back in 1989 with his album The Man is Back!, which had three top 40 singles on the R&B charts. He had four more successful albums in the '90s, and also put that magnificent voice to good use in voiceovers and commercials. 

"Can't Get Enough of Your Love" was covered by pop singer Taylor Dayne in 1993, becoming a dance club hit. A few years later, the Afghan Whigs played a rocking version of the song in the movie Beautiful Girls. And White himself performed the song in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons.

White, who reportedly smoked 150 cigarettes day (according to his Wiki page) and weighed up to 375 pounds, suffered a severe stroke in 2003 and died weeks later at the age of 58. Despite that uncool exit, Barry White remains the epitome of cool.