Our final love song for Valentine’s Week is a slow cooker from that deep-voiced crooner, Barry White. The song is “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” and it was released in June of 1974. It was a huge hit, going all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Cash Box Top 100, and Billboard Hot Soul Singles charts.
“Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” was written, performed, and produced by Barry White, and released on the Philips Records label. It became one of Mr. White’s signature tunes, with lush orchestration over a smoldering Philly Soul proto-disco groove. (The orchestral backing was provided by Mr. White’s Love Unlimited Orchestra, of course.)
The song came about because Mr. White was having trouble sleeping one night. Tired of tossing and turning, he got up, headed to the piano, and wrote this song about his wife (Glodean Jones, one of the members of the Love Unlimited trio). It’s as simple as that.
Twenty years later, in 1993, pop sensation Taylor Dayne recorded a new version of “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe.” (She left the “Babe” off the title.) Her fairly faithful cover was a global dance hit, peaking at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, #14 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on Billboard’s Dance Singles Sales chart.
Barry White began his music career in the early ’60s, singing in various vocal groups. He also started writing and producing for other artists and became an A&R man and producer. White got his big break in 1972, when he discovered the girl group Love Unlimited. He wrote and produced their songs (including their top twenty hit, “Walkin’ in the Rain with the One I Love”) and assembled the Love Unlimited Orchestra to back them up. (The Orchestra had an instrumental hit of their own with 1973’s “Love’s Theme.”)
White began his solo career in earnest in 1973 with the album I’ve Got So Much to Live and its lead single, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby.” Hit after hit followed, including “Never, Never Gonna Give You Up” (1973), “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” (1974), “What Am I Gonna Do with You” (1975), and “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me” (1977), all of which had that same lushly orchestrated sound supporting his soulful half-spoken, half-sung vocals. Of all these tracks, “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” was his only number-one single.
Barry White kept recording and performing throughout the next several decades. Unfortunately, he passed away from a stroke in 2003. He was just 58 years old.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Mr. Barry White, the Walrus of Love, performing “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” live in 1977. The man could bring it.
