Forgotten duets: When Barry White sang ‘All Around the World’ with Lisa Stansfield

Barry White and Lisa Stansfield.

Picture:
Arista/YouTube

By Tom Eames

It’s one of the most chemistry-filled duets of all time, but you may not know it ever happened.

In 1992, soul icon and general love machine Barry White teamed up with British singer Lisa Stansfield on a new version of her 1989 number one hit ‘All Around the World’.

The song was included on her single ‘Time To Make You Mine’, with all royalties going to the charity Trading Places.

It had a full music video directed by Peter Stuart, and it’s a fantastic watch from start to finish:

The video sees Barry and Lisa singing seductively to each other in a golden room, with Barry sitting down on a stool and taking the odd moment to dab his sweat with a handkerchief.

Forget Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga, this is the most sensual duet of all time, surely!

But how did it come about in the first place? Funnily enough, the original was actually a tribute to Barry White himself, complete with spoken word intro.

Songwriter Ian Devaney later told the Guardian: “The song’s hugely influenced by Barry White. He was ridiculed in the disco era, but we really respected him as a soul artist.

“The album version of his single ‘Let the Music Play’ has a spoken intro that goes on for about a minute and a half. So on ‘All Around the World’, we did a shorter spoken intro as an unashamed pastiche or tribute.

“We were nervous about what he might say about it, but he was very sweet. We met him several times, and Lisa and Barry really got on and rerecorded it as a duet.”