The music world was in mourning today for American soul legend Barry White, who has died at the age of 58.
The singer, who will be forever remembered for his gravel-voiced love songs, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, in Los Angeles, at around 2pm British time yesterday, said his manager, Ned Shankman.
White had suffered kidney failure from years of high blood pressure. His unique singing voice, a sexy, husky growl and his seductive, almost cliched lyrics, are instantly distinctive.
His two biggest hits, Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe and You're The First, The Last, My Everything, were both released in the 1970s - White's era.
But he was no soul dinosaur. While being credited by some for launching the disco phenomenon, White remained popular with younger fans as his hits became disco staples.
The big man was often copied - and his sexually-charged verbal foreplay, often parodied, becoming, for his younger fans, affectionately known as the "Love Whale" and "The Walrus of Love".
He was born in Galveston, Texas in 1944, to a single mother. The family later moved to south central Los Angeles.
He began singing in a Baptist church choir but was jailed at 16 for stealing tyres, a punishment he credited with helping him straighten out his life and dedicate his efforts to music.
In 1990, White told Ebony magazine that his voice changed overnight from the squeaky tones of a teenager to the rumbling bass that made him famous.
"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'."
Inspired by Elvis Presley, White released records under his real name, Barry Lee, in the early 1960s and as a band member of the Upfronts, the Atlantics and the Majestics.
However, he found a greater success as a backroom figure, guiding the careers of, amongst others, Felice Taylor and Viola Wills.
He married a childhood sweetheart, identified only as Mary in his autobiography, and fathered four children with her before they separated in 1969 and later divorced.
With his biggest successes in the early 70s he established a well-wrought formula where catchy soul melodies were fused to sweeping arrangements and the singer's signature singing voice.