For those music buyers who have enjoyed Barry White's music since the early 1970s but may not be devoted enough for the three-CD box set Just for You, this 20-track compilation brings together all of White's major chart hits between 1973 and 1979, along with a couple of entries from his Love Unlimited Orchestra. White's distinctive vocal style--a deep, resonant baritone-bass that oozes sex appeal--was the icing on the cake for those hits; superlative string arrangements (courtesy of the late Gene Page) encased White in a lush setting, while White's hand-picked rhythm section (which included many of Los Angeles's top session players) created a groove that was hard to beat. The combination was lethal: hits like "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up," "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe," and "You're My First, My Last, My Everything" made White a chart staple and an early king of disco; his skill as a vocal interpreter was fully evident on a 1979 reading of Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are," another standout on this collection. On the evidence of that track alone, it's hard to believe that, according to legend, White never planned to be a recording artist in his own right and would have been happy to remain in the background as producer and songwriter! --David Nathan
The most hot-buttered of all soul singers, Barry White is an artist whose CDs come with a purpose. To say what that purpose is, is not for a family Web site--but it involves that thing that Mommy and Daddy do at night with the bedroom door closed. All-Time Greatest Hits collects the essential White and Love Unlimited Orchestra tracks onto a packed CD. Are 20 cuts too much? Not with Viagra. That's a kind of medicine that grownups take. --Gavin McNett
