1975 · Behind the Songs
His fifth Top 10 on the Hot 100 and a number one on the soul chart, from an album whose title said it all.
By early 1975, Barry White was not just a singer but a phenomenon. “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” had been a massive hit in 1974, and the question was whether he could sustain the momentum. The answer came in February 1975 with “What Am I Gonna Do with You,” written and produced by White himself. Released on 20th Century Records, recorded in 1974, running three minutes and thirty-six seconds, with “What Am I Gonna Do With You Baby” on the B-side, it became his fifth top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number eight. On the Hot Soul Singles chart, it did even better, spending a week at number one in the spring of 1975. In the UK, it reached number five. The song came from the album Just Another Way to Say I Love You, and its success proved that White’s blend of R&B and disco was not a passing fad but a lasting formula.
The chronology is instructive. “What Am I Gonna Do with You” followed “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” from 1974 and preceded “I’ll Do for You Anything You Want Me To” later in 1975. This was White at his commercial peak, releasing hit after hit, each one consolidating his position. The fact that he wrote and produced the song himself — as he did with most of his material — underscored that this was not a singer dependent on outside songwriters but a complete artist in control of his sound.
A Global Hit
The chart story of “What Am I Gonna Do with You” was not confined to America. Beyond the number eight Hot 100 and number one Hot Soul Singles peaks in the US, the record charted across Europe: number five in the UK, number eleven in Austria, number fifteen in Belgium, number twenty-three in Canada, number seventeen in Germany, and number nineteen in the Netherlands. This was a global hit, proof that White’s appeal transcended national boundaries. The lush, romantic sound he had perfected — the deep voice, the sweeping strings, the insistent beat — spoke a universal language.
That international success was significant because it showed that White was not just an American R&B star but a worldwide pop phenomenon. In the mid-seventies, few Black American artists were achieving that kind of across-the-board European chart penetration. White was, and “What Am I Gonna Do with You” was a key part of that story. It was R&B and disco, but it was also pop in the best sense — melodic, accessible, emotionally direct.
The Album Context
Just Another Way to Say I Love You, the album from which the single was taken, was itself a statement. The title — a variation on White’s romantic ethos — suggested that he was not running out of ways to express love but finding new ones. Released in 1975, it continued the run of albums that had made him a star: I’ve Got So Much to Give (1973), Stone Gon’ (1973), Can’t Get Enough (1974). Each had been successful; each had spun off hits. Just Another Way to Say I Love You was no exception, and “What Am I Gonna Do with You” was its centerpiece.
It is worth noting that while the album already had a Classic Albums story on this site, the song itself had not been covered as a standalone Behind the Songs post. The album and the single are different things: one is a collection, the other a specific three-and-a-half-minute statement. This song deserved its own spotlight, not just as part of an album overview but as a hit in its own right, with its own chart journey and its own place in White’s catalog.
What to Listen For
Start with the voice. White’s bass-baritone was one of the most distinctive instruments in pop music, and on “What Am I Gonna Do with You” he uses it with characteristic skill. He does not just sing the lyric; he speaks it, croons it, lets it rumble up from somewhere deep. The spoken-word passages that had become his trademark are present but integrated, not gimmicky. When he sings, the melody is simple but the delivery is rich with nuance.
Listen to the production. White was his own producer, and he knew exactly what he wanted: a sound that was lush but not cluttered, rhythmic but not harsh, romantic but not saccharine. The strings sweep, the beat pulses, the background vocals (the Love Unlimited Orchestra in spirit if not in name) provide the wash of sound that had become his signature. At 3:36, the record is concise, but it feels expansive — a trick that only a master arranger can pull off.
Finally, consider the song’s place in the disco era. Labeled R&B/disco, it sits at the intersection of two genres that were converging in 1975. White was not a disco artist in the narrow sense — he was too rooted in soul, too distinctive in his vocal approach — but he understood the dancefloor. “What Am I Gonna Do with You” moves; it has a beat you can dance to. Yet it is also a love song, intimate and direct. That duality — dance music for romantics — was White’s great innovation, and this single is one of its purest expressions.
Fifth top ten on the Hot 100, number one on the soul chart, top five in the UK — “What Am I Gonna Do with You” was not White’s biggest hit, but it may have been his most reassuring. It proved that “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” was no fluke, that the Maestro of Love had more to say, and that audiences around the world were eager to hear it.