Danny Pearson

Danny Pearson, a teenager hailing from Racine, Wisconsin, saw his mid-tempo ballad “What’s Your Sign Girl” produced by Barry White and climb into the Top 20 on the R&B side. Signed to White’s Unlimited Gold imprint, which CBS Records distributed, the singer had relocated to California in 1974, after which White chose him as one of the first acts slated for the label. The resulting LP, titled Barry White Presents Mr. Danny Pearson, appeared soon afterward. Its opening single, “What’s Your Sign Girl” backed by “Is It Really True Girl,” reached number 16 R&B and number 106 pop on Billboard’s listings in the final months of 1978. Although Pearson never again placed a single on the charts, the album stood as a promising debut and continues to be cherished by devotees of soft soul. White brought in the same studio musicians heard on his own million-selling recordings and enlisted his longtime associate, arranger Gene Page. Page, whose résumé already included Love Unlimited, Johnny Mathis, the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” assorted Motown successes, and Jeffree Perry’s album Jeffree, supplied Pearson’s project with the same luminous orchestral touches that distinguished his other productions. Among the remaining highlights were a reading of White’s earlier hit “Honey Please, Can’t You See,” the track “Say It Again,” and the Delfonics-inflected, Philly-soul-styled “There’s No One for Me, but You.” Alex Chilton later recorded “What’s Your Sign Girl” for his 1995 Ardent album A Man Called Destruction.