UK Number 40s: Barry White - It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next To Me (1977)

Barry White becomes the 25th act to have scored both a number 1 and a number 40, a total of 65 acts have featured so far so that's well over a third.

The intro will sound familiar to many as it was sampled in "Rock DJ" by Robbie Williams, a number 1 record in 2000.

It was a much bigger hit in America where it reached number four and was the last big hit for Barry White over there. In the UK, it was the first Barry White Top 40 hit not to be written by Barry White himself, with Nelson Pigford and Ekundayo Paris being the songwriters. Nelson Pigford had a minor hit himself a couple of months prior with "You Take My Heart Away" as part of a duet with De Etta Little.

Barry White followed this up the following year with his cover of Billy Joel's "Just The Way You Are", but wouldn't return to the Top 40 after this until 1987 with "Sho' You Right" which was then followed by another gap until a brief mid 90s comeback with his final 3 Top 40 hits to date.