Episode 2 - Soul Unlimited - When Barrry Met Larry

In the 1970s, Barry White met three girls and formed a group called Love Unlimited. With the help of Paul Poletti, they got a record deal and released their first hit song. However, Barry wanted to pursue his own music and started writing and recording his own songs. Initially hesitant to sing, he eventually realized his talent and became a successful solo artist. Despite facing challenges with record labels, Barry's music gained popularity and he continued to create hit songs. The episode ends with Barry expressing his desire to release an instrumental album, which surprises his producer. 1970 comes in, I go to a knob convention at the Central Plaza Hotel. By now I've met three girls and I've named them Love Unlimited. 1971 rolls around, I'm ready now to start rehearsing the girls, which I did. I get a call from Paul Poletti again. Paul said, Larry's looking for you. I said, Larry who? He said, Larry Nunes. It was like a ton of bricks fell on me. I said, Larry Nunes? I said, Paul, I forgot about Larry Nunes. Because what Larry and I would do together, I had to really be creatively ready for Larry. Meaning, a man would come into my life and say, I'm going to take away all the bullshit that has been your problem and you and I are going to know if you got it or not. EPISODE 2 OF SOUL UNLIMITED In the first episode we followed Barry as he scuffled his way around Hollywood looking for an opportunity to work in music. White described himself back then as the young man with the souls flapping on his shoes. But he got that all important break thanks to Paul Poletti. White and Poletti became close business partners. More notably they developed a friendship that would become life enduring. In this episode we'll find out how White juggles delivering on his promise to make Love Unlimited a mainstream success alongside this new found calling to write and record his own songs. Can he pull it off? That's the question. Well, I met with Larry. We knocked it off, we hit it off right on the first day. It took us almost four months to put that deal together. This was when I cut Love Unlimited, he gave me the money. I went in and recorded Love Unlimited and my first gold record was Walking in the Rain with the one I love, Uni. Russ Regan was president. Larry took the master to Russ. Now was Larry your partner? I was his partner. He owned 80% of the company, I didn't own but 20. Love Unlimited were an all-female pop trio from San Pedro, California featuring Diane Taylor and sisters Linda and Glodine James, the latter who would become White's future wife. At the time when they were introduced in 1969 they had neither a name or any professional experience. However, Barry White saw potential and in his capacity as an A&R director he set out to get them a record deal. When the studio cut, came out with the master, he said let's go to A&M. Joe Sutton was running it and Russ Regan was head of Uni. Russ freaked over it. I gotta have this album, this album's a smash. We put Love Walking in the Rain out, it was a smash. The goal of the road is suddenly misery sets in. This is not where I want to be. It wasn't where we were working, it was the conditions we had to work in. In other words, I didn't mind working in the clubs but I resented it being a club where pimps hang out because the music that I create is of a higher intellect than that. It not only encompasses pimps but ballplayers, executives, everybody. And that circuit only leans itself to one area of people. So I knew we were in trouble with a hit record. When we come off the road, I make a call to Sammy Davis Jr.'s office because he had expressed interest in Love Unlimited to open for him in Vegas. He loved the show and everything. This was on a Monday. I had a meeting with him set up for Thursday. I went into my little office, Larry and I's office. He had me over on Sunset. My piano was in there. I slept on the floor there in my office. I sat down and started fooling around with this song. And Joe, I must have sat there from a quarter to two in the afternoon to about a quarter to nine that evening playing the same thing over. And all I had was this much of an intro. What did you write? I canceled the meeting at Sammy Davis Jr. because I was going to go in the studio on Thursday. But I wrote another song on Thursday. I didn't go in the studio until Friday. Now when I go into the studio after I finish writing the song, I'm going in to sing it to find me a singer to sing the song and I want to see how it goes. When I heard Barry White's voice on those songs, something went through me that I'd never experienced in my life. My engineer was sitting there and I was scared to tell him what I really felt because I knew he was going to think I was ego-tripping. This is how I hear his story when he talks about it. He's built all this knowledge and these contacts. Once he's got the music underway, and as you say, he reluctantly decided that he would then put vocals to his own music. That's right. I suppose he had all of those components running. He was so capable and so adaptable. By the time he started making records for himself, he knew how to do everything but be an artist on a stage. He knew how to produce. He knew how to write. He knew how to arrange. He knew how to conduct a session. He knew how to get musicians together and have them record. He knew how to manage, you know. Russ, I said, Russ, I think I've got something that's very interesting. It took me almost three weeks to tell Larry. See, I knew Larry would want me to sing. Larry would want me to do anything I wanted to do creatively. So that was all that was left for him to do was to be a solo actor, especially, and a lot of producers and songwriters come along this same way, especially when you can't get anyone to do the song the way you would like to hear it done. I gave them a budget for $32,000. I went in and cut the album for $28,000, and I brought it back there, and they didn't like the album. Larry and I could not believe it, but they wanted us to shop it. First place Larry took my album was to A&M, and they turned it down. Second place he took it was to MCA. They turned it down. Then he played it for Jack Gold. Jack freaked over that album. He called Clive. Clive heard just a little bit of it over the phone. He said, I'm very interested in that album. He was flying out to make the deal. We were very happy because with Russ, we had spent up all the money. We needed money for the company. If we shop it to CBS, we're going to get some extra bread, so we're back in business. Well, I got to tell you, that Saturday morning of the week that Clive said, I'll be out there next week, the phone rang. It was Russ Regan. He said, I'm keeping the album. It just kept coming down to, Barry, you need to be singing this yourself. You need to be making these records yourself. That was how he reluctantly, and as legend has it, even as the label was printing up the discs to go out, with his name on it and the whole thing, he was still telling Larry Nunes, man, I don't know about this artist thing. This time, we're going to hear it from Zoey Roman. It's interesting when you say he didn't want to be the singer on there. It's funny how people fall into these things and then just become even greater than anyone with that sound, that sonority. The depth of it is incredible. The width of it, you know what I mean? It's an all-round surround sound. By now, my album is a smash. I've got so much to give. The song that I sat there and played from a quarter to two to nine o'clock. Next on Unlimited. Russ said, Barry, I don't know what's happening, but Papa, you've got some formula going. People, everybody's talking about your music. I said, well, Russ, get ready for this one. I want to do an instrumental album. Russ said, you're insane. He said, you're crazy.