For those music buyers who have enjoyed Barry White's music since the early 1970s but may not be devoted enough for the three-CD box set Just for You, this 20-track compilation brings together all of White's major chart hits between 1973 and 1979, along with a couple of entries from his Love Unlimited Orchestra. White's distinctive vocal style--a deep, resonant baritone-bass that oozes sex appeal--was the icing on the cake for those hits; superlative string arrangements (courtesy of the late Gene Page) encased White in a lush setting, while White's hand-picked rhythm section (which included many of Los Angeles's top session players) created a groove that was hard to beat. The combination was lethal: hits like "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up," "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe," and "You're My First, My Last, My Everything" made White a chart staple and an early king of disco; his skill as a vocal interpreter was fully evident on a 1979 reading of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," another standout on this collection. On the evidence of that track alone, it's hard to believe that, according to legend, White never planned to be a recording artist in his own right and would have been happy to remain in the background as producer and songwriter! --David Nathan
If the one-disc All-Time Greatest Hits leaves you panting for more, but the three-disc box set Just for You proves that one can, in fact, get enough of Barry White's love, well, then the two-disc Ultimate Collection is the anthology for you. An entire slow-jams industry has been erected in White's wake, but no one has done it better. Call it "funkzac"--an inimitable fusion of lush strings and suave brass dancing on a bed of funk and disco rhythms, with the manly maestro mixed prominently atop his seduction soundscapes. Ultimate Collection serves up enough cherry Barry to produce another baby boom. --W.C. Sweeney
