Track Listing

1. Practice What You Preach
2. There It Is
3. I Only Want To Be With You
4. The Time Is Right
5. Baby's Home
6. Come On
7. Love Is The Icon
8. Sexy Undercover
9. Don't You Want To Know?
10. Whatever We Had, We Had

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99434 in Music
• Released on: 1997-03-24
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 71 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Critics may contend that Barry White passed his hit-making peak in the late 1970s, but the man with the righteously real, deep- down-in-the-vocal-basement tones shocked all the nonbelievers in 1994. Thanks to "Practice What You Preach", the major hit single from this collection, White proved that he was far from being down with the count. Written and produced by White with Gerald Levert and his musical partner Tony Nicholas, the song not only found favor with White's existing audience, it had enough contemporary appeal to win the pop and soul legend some new fans, giving White's recording career a much-needed jolt. White also used the services of other current musical hit makers for the project: Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis cowrote "I Only Want to Be with You" and "Come On", a pair of strong tunes for the album. However, White is at his bedroom best on "Baby's Home" and "Whatever We Had, We Had", most definitely a throwback to his earlier work as a 70s chartbuster. --David Nathan

CD Description
He is love and love is he. You are there to be pleased, he to serve. When he says that you and he apart is like ice cream without the cone, this much is clear: he is the ice cream, you are the cone. When he croons "Baby's Home", you had better believe this: "baby" is he himself.
Barry White pulls this off the same way he always has, not with Madonna-esque moxie, but with Superman sincerity. The man has never uttered an insincere word in his life. In the opener here, he challenges a woman who teased him for too long to quit the games and get on with the love. The only teasing White does forthe album's remaining hour is the kind that comes with foreplay, which he's prepared to engage in for way more than an hour. In most of the songs, which average around six minutes, he whispers deep baritone somethings for a verse, then breaks into a laid-back croon over jazzy, funky backing tracks dabbed here and there with strings. Slow and sweet, but always funky.
He draws out "There It Is" the furthest of all,offering a full minute of a single bit of plinking percussion, over which he moans, "don't say anything, don't say one word". He hasn't even taken his clothes off, and you've already melted.

Customer Reviews

Barry White will always be the icon
Only now am I able to once again listen to Barry White and celebrate his musical genius; in the months following his death, I could only mourn his passing. It is still hard to believe that the icon, and Barry White truly was the icon, is no longer with us, but he will live forever through his music. The Icon Is Love was released in 1994, and it offered incontrovertible proof that the man was still at the top of his game. These songs are generally a little slower in tempo than White's string of earlier hits, but there can be no doubt that this is vintage Barry White material. Austin Powers only wishes he had half of the mojo that Barry White possessed.

Practice What You Preach opens this album in grand style. This track begins with a sultry rap spoken to the accompaniment of a sensuous bass line, after which Barry launches right into lyrics of great energy and appeal. The chorus is fantastic, so catchy you will carry this tune around in your head for days at a time. Practice What You Preach spent 30 weeks on the Billboard R&B charts, three of them at number one, and helped reenergize White's career. Two other singles from this album, Come On and There It Is also made the charts. Come On oozes with sensual power, as White pleads with his partner to come on and play; satisfaction is guaranteed in this up-tempo track. There It Is, however, is much less entrancing; this is actually my least favorite song on the album. Two other tracks merit special mention: Baby's Home and Whatever We Had, We Had. These are vintage White classics that belong right alongside so many of his earlier standout recordings. Oozing with that unquantifiable magic White's voice conveys, the singer gives the words and music all the time and attention they deserve. Baby's Home runs over eight minutes, while What We Had, We Had runs for over ten and a half minutes - neither song is too long. The latter has to do with breaking up and remaining friends, while Baby's Home expresses all of the magic of a love still burning with passion.

Sexy Undercover picks up the tempo a little bit, as Barry tells his lady that he's shy on the outside but full of surprises behind closed doors; he's got the mojo working hard in this dance-worthy track. I Only Want To Be With You, in which Barry sings that love is so much more than a physical thing, lays down a smooth, toe-tapping groove with just a touch of good old-fashioned funk; I wish this song had been released as a single because I think it would have been a huge hit. Don't You Want to Know is slow and sensual, really a beautiful little song. Love Is the Icon and The Time Is Right are great tracks, as well.

With a nice mixture of up-tempo tracks and mesmerizing ballads, this 1994 album returned Barry White to the spotlight and, in so doing, gave the world ten more Barry White classics to enjoy forevermore. Barry White may have mellowed a little bit by 1994, but the magic was still there for all to hear and enjoy. He was and always will be the icon.