Barry White (1944-2003)
Filed under the name Barry · February 16, 2026
Barry White built an entire beloved career around his remarkably deep, velvety voice and a catalogue of romantic soul ballads that made him one of the defining musical icons of the 1970s, a decade I remember rather better from within a very different sort of drawing room than the one his music was actually written for. I'll admit my own musical education runs almost entirely to opera and the occasional restrained Baroque recital, so White's genre is territory I approach as a genuinely curious outsider rather than a natural devotee. What strikes me, reading about him properly for the first time, is how singular and unmistakable that voice apparently was — the sort of instrument that cannot be taught or inherited, only discovered and then, evidently, worked at for decades. I find I rather envy anyone whose gift is that immediately, universally recognizable, since so much of what I was given came with a family name attached rather than earned entirely on its own unaided merits.