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Known as the man with the golden voice, soul singer Barry White has became a bedroom icon. With the kind of dark, velvety bass voice you just want to wrap yourself up in, he's gone on to sell over a hundred million records and, as legend would have it, play an essential part in setting the mood for millions of conceptions. But listeners hearing his tender, pleading grooves might be surprised to hear that the man had a gangster side too. Indeed, before taking on the task of full-time mood-setter, Barry White was arrested for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires. As a teenager, White had become heavily involved in gang activities after moving from Texas to the tough neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles. But jail set his head straight, and after he got out he decided to explore a life-long love of music. He got his start writing songs for the popular cartoon kid's band The Banana Splits, then got his break as a backup singer for a girl group called Love Unlimited. White would continue to perform with and lead Love Unlimited for most of his career, even while recording his own solo albums and he eventually married the group's lead singer, Goldean James. But it was while recording demos for another male singer that The Walrus of Love got behind the main mic himself. The rest, as they say, is history. Barry White's disco-soul songs about loving ladies are often imitated but never, ever duplicated and he had hits with classic tracks like "You're the First, the Last, My Everything," "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love" and "Never Never Gonna Give You Up."

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