Can't Get Enough

By the time he hit his stride in 1974 with this chart-topping album, Barry White had firmly established his vocal persona on the contemporary music scene. No fewer than four top-10 R&B hits--two of which had been top-10 pop entries--and two gold albums preceded the release of Can't Get Enough and the man with the deep (and apparently golden) voice was a stealthy force. The allure of White--a Los Angeles native whose early years included a stint as an A&R man with a local record label--lay in his ability to craft relatively simple love songs and embellish them with luxuriant strings, a hard-to-beat rhythm section, and soulful background vocals. The combination is never more evident than on the classic title track and "You're My First, My Last, My Everything," an anthem that seemed to appeal immeasurably to White's ever-increasing pop audience. --David Nathan