Carl Carlton (born January 1, 1953,
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
,
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
R&BRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
, soul, and
funkFunk is an American music genre that originated in the late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
singer and
songwriterA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well as the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer.-History and background of songwriters:...
best known for his
hitsA hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
"
Everlasting Love"Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden. The song was first a hit for soul singer Robert Knight in 1967. It was also recorded by several other artists in the years since...
" and "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)".
Carlton first began
recordingSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
in the late 1960s as "Little Carl" Carlton, a marketing ploy to capitalize on some
vocalThe human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source...
similarities to
Stevie WonderStevie Wonder is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Blind from birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for the label. He has recorded more than thirty U.S...
, who recorded under the name "Little Stevie" Wonder in the early 1960s.
Carl Carlton (born January 1, 1953,
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
,
MichiganMichigan is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. It was named after Lake Michigan, whose name is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe term mishigama, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
R&BRhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s...
, soul, and
funkFunk is an American music genre that originated in the late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
singer and
songwriterA songwriter is someone who writes the lyrics, as well as the musical composition or melody to songs. One who writes only lyrics is a lyricist, while one who writes only music is a composer.-History and background of songwriters:...
best known for his
hitsA hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...
"
Everlasting Love"Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden. The song was first a hit for soul singer Robert Knight in 1967. It was also recorded by several other artists in the years since...
" and "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)".
Career
Carlton first began
recordingSound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
in the late 1960s as "Little Carl" Carlton, a marketing ploy to capitalize on some
vocalThe human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc. Human voice is specifically that part of human sound production in which the vocal folds are the primary sound source...
similarities to
Stevie WonderStevie Wonder is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Blind from birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for the label. He has recorded more than thirty U.S...
, who recorded under the name "Little Stevie" Wonder in the early 1960s. After scoring some minor local hits, Carlton was signed by Don D. Robey and moved to
Houston, TexasHouston is the fourth-largest city in the United States and the largest city within the state of Texas. As of the 2008 U.S. Census estimate, the city has a population of 2.2 million within an area of 600 square miles . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of...
, the home of his new
record labelIn the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
,
Back Beat RecordsBack Beat Records was the soul sub-label of Duke Records started in 1957. It was later acquired by ABC Records in the 70's. The label's biggest hits included "Treat Her Right" by Roy Head & The Traits and "Everlasting Love" by Carl Carlton. In 1976, ABC discontinued the Back Beat label.-External...
. Carlton saw some success with the new label including his first major hit, a
discoDisco is a genre of dance music that that had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, psychedelic and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and early 1970s...
-tinged remake of
Robert Knight'sRobert Knight is an American singer. He is best known for his recording of the chart topping song "Everlasting Love".-Career:...
"
Everlasting Love"Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden. The song was first a hit for soul singer Robert Knight in 1967. It was also recorded by several other artists in the years since...
", that went to #6 on the
U.S.The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Billboard Hot 100The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday; while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chartA record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
(which went on to become the most popular version of the Cason/Gayden classic song ever).
Robey sold his labels to
ABC RecordsABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company...
in 1972, and in 1976 Carlton became embroiled in a
royaltyRoyalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property right. Royalties are typically a percentage of gross or net sales derived from use of an asset or a fixed price per unit sold of an item...
dispute with the new ownership that caused him to stop recording for some time. He then signed with
Mercury RecordsMercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Music Group in the US, and are both subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal Music...
in 1977, but only released one
singleIn music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats.-History:...
on that label. Carlton was unable to land a new
recording contractA recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
for several years until
Leon HaywoodLeon Haywood is an American funk and soul singer, best known for his song "I Want a Do Something Freaky To You". The song was sampled on two of Dr. Dre's singles, "Nuthin' But a "G" Thang" and "The Wash"...
helped him get a singles deal with
20th Century Records20th Century Records, also known as 20th Fox Records and 20th Century-Fox Records, began in 1958 was a subsidiary of film studio 20th Century Fox. In 1963 20th Fox Records became 20th Century-Fox Records. In 1972 the name changed to 20th Century Records...
. A Haywood-penned single, "She's a Bad Mama Jama", became a major hit, peaking at #2 on the soul chart and earning Carlton a
Grammy AwardThe Grammy Awards —or Grammys—are presented annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry...
nomination for
Best R&B Vocal Performance, MaleThe Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance has been awarded since 1968. The award has had several minor name changes:*In 1968 it was awarded as Best R&B Solo Vocal Performance, Male...
. Carlton's subsequent
albumAn album or record album is a collection of related audio or music tracks distributed to the public. The most common way is through commercial distribution, although smaller artists will often distribute directly to the public by selling their albums at live concerts or on their websites.-...
,
Carl Carlton, went
goldMusic recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped a certain number of copies.Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories, which are named after the precious materials gold, platinum and diamond...
in 1981. "She's a Bad Mama Jama" has since become a staple of
compilation albumA compilation album is an album featuring tracks from multiple recording artists, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, source or subject matter...
s and
soundtrackA soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized...
s and is often
sampleIn music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song. This is typically done with a sampler, which can be a piece of hardware or a computer program on a digital computer. Sampling is also...
d in rap music.
Carlton released several more albums in the 1980s but had only a few minor R&B hits, and eventually fell out of favor with record companies and out of the public eye. 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
starsA celebrity is a person who is famously recognized in a society or culture.Generally speaking, a celebrity is someone who gets media attention and most frequently has an extroverted personality. The desire to be notable is implied by some to be a part of Western culture and more specifically the...
on the "Rhythm, Love, and Soul" edition of the
PBSThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television service with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. However, its operations are largely funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting...
series
American Soundtrack. His performance of "Everlasting Love" was included on the accompanying
live albumA live album – commonly contrasted with a studio album – is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances. Live albums may be recorded at a single concert, or combine recordings made at multiple concerts...
that was released in 2004.