Album: The Icon Is Love (A&M)
Songwriters: Barry White
Hit #1: November 19th, 1994 (3 Weeks)
Utilizing pillowy, decadent orchestrations and his crotch-stimulating bass voice to birth classy romantic soul pleas (and assist in the conception of millions of children around the world), Barry White, or the "Sultan of Smooth Soul" as many called him, found consistent success throughout the 1970's with lengthy-titled tunes like "I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More Baby", "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" and "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me". By the next decade, though, White suffered from the rise of electronic-based production and uninspired material which weakly imitated his previous success.
Thanks to rap artists sampling his work and a contribution to Quincy Jones' all-star slow jam "The Secret Garden", White became highly relevant again in the 1990s, and saw his commercial appeal re-ignite. The newly heightened appreciation of his work and style culminated in the biggest selling album of his career, 1994's The Icon Is Love, fueled by the Gerald Levert co-produced smash single, "Practice What You Preach".
Opening with the dual rumblings of a killer bassline and White's growling mack talk ("So what do you want to do...?"), "Practice What You Preach" doesn't waste time in it's announcement that things are about to get naughty real quick. That is if homegirl would stop talking about the things she can do and actually do them. "Once I've been with you/ You'll never go back," she teases, but White is tired of her endless wordplay. He quickly throws back, "You say there's a lesson that you wanna teach?/ Well, here I am baby/ Practice what you preach," his distinctive drawl ticking the track's simmering slow funk groove.
The sexual charge between Barry and the faceless vocalists playing the female vixen is both playful and intense leaving Barry so aroused he even sheds his cool swagger for a second, furious ad-libs damn near ordering her to break em off a piece before he explodes (and with his considerable size, she should want to do anything he says).
The Grammy-nominated "Preach"'s overwhelming success marked the perfect birthday present for the then-fifty year old, and his appeal didn't fade after the cut's radio play began to diminish either. Icon pulled out another Top 15 R&B hit with "Come On" and collaborations with Quincy Jones ("Slow Jams" alongside Babyface and Tamia) and Tina Turner ("In Your Wildest Dreams") garnered attention as well. His next album, 1999's Staying Power, would get him his very first (!!) Grammy's. Sadly, the world would lose one of it's music greats when White passed away in 2003 from kidney failure.
Best Moment: "Aww, you just keep...Aww, you just keep..." (3:50)
DL: "Practice What You Preach" (YFH)
0 comments:
Post a Comment