Disco before disco was invented… It’s a fair bet that a few babies born at Christmas 1974 were conceived with this tune playing on the bedroom Stereogram.

Barry White had already enjoyed a couple of hit singles under his own name before conducting his own 40-piece Love Unlimited Orchestra as they performed Love’s Theme.

It’s an entirely orchestral and entirely instrumental number and it’s a little odd to see “The Walrus of Love” taking a back seat here, content to conduct a string orchestra (with added wah-wah guitar).

The multi-talented White – singer and songwriter, pianist and producer, composer and conductor – originally brought the orchestra together to back his femal protégés, Love Unlimited, who made their own vocal version of Love’s Theme (as would Andy Williams), but soon began supporting him too, as well as recording their own album, inevitably titled Rhapsody In White.

The orchestra carried on backing Barry on stage and in the studio and at one point their ranks included a sax player by the name of Kenny Gorelick who would go on to achieve solo fame under the abbreviated name of Kenny G.

Two decades later, this tune was sampled to excellent effect by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on their 1984 single Dream Of Me.