Velvety voiced Grammy winner Barry White -- whose distinctive bass set the mood for romance with hits like "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" -- posthumously received the 2,506th star Thursday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
White's star is in front of 6914 Hollywood Blvd., across the street from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. His wife, Glodean, accepted the star on his behalf at Thursday's ceremony. White died in 2003 in Los Angeles of complications due to kidney failure.
He was 58.
"His music will be with us forever and a day -- past all of our lifetimes," Glodean White said Thursday.
White was born in Texas, but grew up in South Los Angeles. The self-taught pianist was member of a Baptist church choir, but it was White's smooth bass voice that made him world-renowned as a romantic crooner who provided the playlist for couples "in the mood."
In a 1990 Ebony magazine interview, White described the morning he woke up to realize his voice had dropped from the high pitch of a preadolescent's to a rumbling canyon-deep bass.
"It scared me and my mother when I spoke that morning," he said. "It was totally unexpected. My chest rattled. I mean vibrations. My mother was staring at me, and I was staring at her. The next thing I new, her straight face broke into a beautiful smile. Tears came down her face and she said, 'My son's a man now.'"
His self-produced first album, "I’ve Got So Much to Give," was released in 1973. The album was the first of four consecutive White albums to top the R&B and pop charts.
The album included the title track and his first solo chart hit, "I'm Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby." Other other 1970s chart hits included "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up," "What Am I Gonna Do with You'' "Let the Music Play," "It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me" and "Your Sweetness is My Weakness."
White released "The Man Is Back!" in 1989, producing three top 40 singles on the Billboard R&B charts. The 1994 album "The Icon Is Love" climbed to No. 1 the Billboard R&B album charts and the single "Practice What You Preach'' gave him his first No. 1 hit on the Billboard R&B singles chart in almost 20 years.
The album received a Grammy nomination in the best R&B album category.
"Staying Power" was White's final album. Released in 1999, it brought Grammys for best male R&B vocal performance and best traditional R&B vocal performance.
More Southern California Stories:
