Carl Carlton | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | Detroit, Michigan, U.S. | May 21, 1953
Genres | Pop, R&B, soul, funk |
Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter |
Years active | 1965–present |
Carl Carlton (born May 21, 1953) [1] is an American R&B, soul, and funk singer-songwriter, best known for his hits "Everlasting Love" and "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)". [2]
Carlton was born in Detroit, Michigan, and began his career in the mid-1960s as "Little Carl" Carlton. [2] It was a marketing ploy to capitalize on some vocal similarities to Stevie Wonder, who recorded under the name "Little Stevie Wonder" in the early 1960s. His first recordings were for Lando Records, [2] for which he recorded some minor local hits, including "So What" and "Don't You Need a Boy Like Me".
In 1968, Don D. Robey signed Carlton to the Back Beat Record label, which Robey had started in 1957. Shortly after signing with the label, Carlton relocated to Houston, Texas, to be closer to his new label. [2]
His first single with Back Beat Records, "Competition Ain't Nothing" became a huge hit on the UK northern soul scene after its release on the UK Action label.[ citation needed ]
Carlton was listed as one of the Cash Box Best R&B Artists of 1970 in the December 26 issue of the magazine. [3]
In January 1971, Carlton had a hit on the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles chart with "I Can Feel It". It spent three weeks in the chart, peaking at no. 47. [4] [5] [6]
Carlton finally saw major success in the United States with a cover version of Robert Knight's "Everlasting Love". This song went to number 6 in 1974 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 11 on the Billboard R&B chart. [7]
Robey sold his labels to ABC Records in 1972. [2] Beginning in 1976, Carlton became embroiled in a royalty dispute with ABC Records that caused him to stop recording for some time. [2] He then signed with Mercury Records in 1977, but only released one single on that label. [2] Carlton was unable to land a new recording contract for several years until Leon Haywood helped him get a singles deal with 20th Century Records. [2]
A Haywood-penned single, "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)", became a major hit, peaking at number 2 on the soul chart and earning Carlton a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male [8] in 1982. The track peaked at number 34 in the UK Singles Chart. [9] Carlton's subsequent album, Carl Carlton, went gold in 1981. "She's a Bad Mama Jama" has since become a staple of compilation albums and soundtracks and is often sampled in rap music. [10]
Carlton released several more albums in the 1980s but had only a few minor R&B hits. After 1985's Private Property, he did not release another album until 1994's Main Event, which also failed to chart.
In late 2002, Carlton appeared with many R&B stars on the "Rhythm, Love, and Soul" edition of the PBS series American Soundtrack. His performance of "Everlasting Love" was included on the accompanying live album that was released in 2004. [11]
On August 1, 2010, Carlton released his first gospel single entitled "God Is Good". On April 16, 2011, Carlton was nominated for a Detroit Music Award in the "Outstanding Gospel/Christian Vocalist" category. [12]
Year | Album | Chart positions | Label | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [13] | US R&B [7] | ||||
1973 | Can't Stop a Man in Love | 165 | 51 | Back Beat | |
1974 | Everlasting Love | 132 | 22 | ABC | |
1975 | I Wanna Be with You | — | 49 | ||
1981 | Carl Carlton | 34 | 3 | 20th Century Fox | |
1982 | The Bad C.C. | 133 | 21 | RCA Victor | |
1985 | Private Property | — | 36 | Casablanca | |
1994 | Main Event | — | — | Evejim | |
2010 | God Is Good | — | — | CTU | |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart. |
Year | Single | Chart positions | Certifications | Albums | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [14] | US R&B [15] | AUS [16] | NZ [17] | UK [18] | CAN Top [19] | CAN AC [19] | |||||
1968 | "Competition Ain't Nothin'" Little Carl Carlton | 75 | — | — | — | — | 55 | — | Can't Stop A Man in Love | ||
"46 Drums – 1 Guitar" Little Carl Carlton | 105 | — | — | — | — | 85 | — | N/A | |||
1969 | "Look at Mary Wonder (How I Got Over)" Little Carl Carlton | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"Don't Walk Away" | — | 38 | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
1970 | "Drop by My Place" Little Carl Carlton | 78 | 12 | — | — | — | — | — | Can't Stop A Man in Love | ||
1971 | "I Can Feel It" / "You've Got So Much (To Learn About Love)" | — | 47 | — | — | — | — | — | N/A | ||
1972 | "I Won't Let That Chump Break Your Heart" | — | 42 | — | — | — | — | — | Can't Stop a Man in Love | ||
1973 | "You Can't Stop a Man in Love" | — | 81 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
1974 | "Everlasting Love" | 6 | 11 | — | — | — | 19 | 11 | Everlasting Love | ||
1975 | "Smokin' Room" | 91 | 13 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"Morning, Noon and Nightime" | — | 71 | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
1976 | "Ain't Gonna Tell Nobody (About You)" | — | 67 | — | — | — | — | — | I Wanna Be with You | ||
1980 | "This Feeling's Rated X-Tra" | — | 57 | — | — | — | — | — | Carl Carlton | ||
1981 | "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)" | 22 | 2 | — | 27 | 34 | — | — | |||
1982 | "I Think It's Gonna Be Alright" | — | 65 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"Baby I Need Your Loving" | 103 | 17 | 12 | — | — | 27 | — | The Bad C.C. | |||
1983 | "Swing That Sexy Thang" | — | 54 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
1985 | "Private Property" | — | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | Private Property | ||
1986 | "Slipped, Tripped (Fooled Around and Fell in Love)" | — | 88 | — | — | — | — | — | |||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
1970 | The Merv Griffin Show | |
1974—1982 | American Bandstand | Two episodes |
1974—1983 | Soul Train | Two episodes |
2003 | American Soundtrack: Rhythm, Love and Soul | Television documentary special |
Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers, Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the album-oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.
Duke Records was an American record label, started in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1952 by David James Mattis and Bill Fitzgerald, owners of Tri-State Recording Company. Their first release was Roscoe Gordon singing "Hey Fat Girl", issued on Duke R-1, later amended to R-101.
Charlene Keys, better known by the stage name Tweet, is an American singer-songwriter.
Deborah Cox is a Canadian singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Toronto, she began performing on television commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows in her teenage years before becoming a professional backing vocalist for Celine Dion. In 1994, Cox relocated to the United States and was signed to Arista Records by Clive Davis, releasing her self-titled debut album the following year. Her second studio album, One Wish (1998), was certified platinum in the United States. It was marked by the commercial success of the pop crossover single "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here", which would become her most successful entry on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number two and remaining there for eight consecutive weeks. Cox signed with J Records for her third studio album The Morning After (2002), which saw moderate commercial success.
Angela Laverne Brown known professionally as Angie Stone, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. She rose to fame in the late 1970s as member of the hip hop trio The Sequence. In the early 1990s, she became a member of the R&B trio Vertical Hold. Stone would later release her solo debut Black Diamond (1999) on Arista Records, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and spawned the single "No More Rain ".
Barbara Jean Acklin was an American soul singer and songwriter, who was most successful in the 1960s and 1970s. Her biggest hit as a singer was "Love Makes a Woman" (1968). As a songwriter, she is best known for co-writing the multi-million-selling "Have You Seen Her" (1971) with Eugene Record, lead singer of the Chi-Lites.
Caron Melina Wheeler is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and musician. Born and raised in London, she performed in various singing competitions as a teenager and began her recording career as one of the founding members of Brown Sugar. She was also one of the founding members of the female backing vocalist group Afrodiziak. She officially rose to fame in the late 1980s as lead singer of R&B group Soul II Soul. Managed by her bandmate, Jazzie B, the group became one of the London's best-selling groups in the 1990s. Their debut album, Club Classics Vol. One (1989), which established them as a global success worldwide, earned two Grammy Awards and featured the UK and Billboard number-one singles "Keep on Movin'" and "Back to Life ".
Ill Na Na is the debut studio album by American rapper Foxy Brown. It was released by Def Jam Recordings on November 19, 1996, and reissued on September 29, 1997, in the UK with an additional song "Big Bad Mamma". Brown began working on the album after being discovered by the production team Trackmasters and appearing on a number of singles by other artists, such as LL Cool J, Case and Jay Z. The immediate success of the singles led to a bidding war at the beginning of 1996, and in March, Def Jam Recordings won and signed the then 17-year-old rapper to the label. Mostly produced by Trackmasters, Ill Na Na features guest appearances from Blackstreet, Havoc, Method Man, Kid Capri and Jay Z. Lyrically, the album mainly focuses on themes of fashion, sex and mafia.
"Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight and since covered numerous times, most successfully by Love Affair, as well as Town Criers, Rex Smith & Rachel Sweet, Carl Carlton, Sandra Cretu, U2 and Gloria Estefan. The original version of "Everlasting Love" was recorded by Knight in Nashville, with Cason and Gayden aiming to produce it in a Motown style reminiscent of the Four Tops and the Temptations. When released as a single, the song reached No. 13 on the US chart in 1967. Subsequently, the song has reached the US top 40 three times, most successfully as performed by Carl Carlton, peaking at No. 6 in 1974, with more moderate success by the duo Rex Smith and Rachel Sweet and Gloria Estefan.
Robert Knight was an American singer, best known for his 1967 recording of the song "Everlasting Love".
"You Are Everything" is a soul song written by Thom Bell and Linda Creed and originally recorded by the Philadelphia soul group The Stylistics.
Antonio "Tony" Terry is an American soul/new jack swing singer from Washington, D.C., who had several R&B hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Otha Leon Haywood was an American funk and soul singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for his 1975 hit single "I Want'a Do Something Freaky to You", which has been frequently sampled by musicians such as Dr. Dre among others.
"Yes, I'm Ready" is a song by Barbara Mason from her album Yes, I'm Ready (1965). It has been covered by numerous artists, and was a hit single for Teri DeSario and K.C. when they recorded a duet version in 1980.
Ray, Goodman & Brown is an American R&B vocal group. The group originated as The Moments, who formed in the mid-1960s and whose greatest successes came in the 1970s with hits including "Love on a Two-Way Street", "Sexy Mama", and "Look at Me ". In 1978, they changed their name to Ray, Goodman & Brown and had further hits, including "Special Lady".
Alyson Williams is an Emmy Award Winner and R&B singer who had a string of hit singles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Some notable tracks include "Just Call My Name", "Sleep Talk", "My Love Is So Raw" and "I Need Your Lovin".
"Big Bad Mama" is a single by American rapper Foxy Brown and American R&B group Dru Hill from the soundtrack to the 1997 film, How to Be a Player. The song also appeared on the European re-issue of Foxy Brown's debut album, Ill Na Na.
Inseparable is the debut studio album by American singer Natalie Cole, released on May 11, 1975, by Capitol Records. The album became her first gold-certified album and spawned the number-one R&B hits "This Will Be " and "Inseparable". The hit album and its singles earned Cole two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. .
"She's a Bad Mama Jama " is a single by Carl Carlton. The song was written by Leon Haywood and became a major R&B hit, earning Carlton a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male in 1982. Carlton's subsequent album, Carl Carlton, went gold in 1981. "She's a Bad Mama Jama" has since become a staple of compilation albums and soundtracks.
"I Can Feel It" is a song by Carl Carlton, released in 1971 as the B-side of "You've Got So Much ". It reached the Billboard Best Selling Soul Singles chart.