Carl Carlton (born May 21, 1953) is an American R&B,

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

, and

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

singer-songwriter, best known for his hits "

Everlasting Love "Everlasting Love" is a song written by Buzz Cason and Mac Gayden, originally a 1967 hit for Robert Knight and since remade numerous times, most successfully by Love Affair, as well as Town Criers, Carl Carlton, Sandra Cretu, and Gloria Estef ...

" and "

She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) "She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)" 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 ...

Background

Carlton was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, Michigan, and began his career in the mid-1960s as "Little Carl" Carlton. It was a marketing ploy to capitalize on some vocal similarities to

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

, who recorded under the name "Little Stevie Wonder" in the early 1960s. His first recordings were for Lando Records, 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 Don Deadric Robey (November 1, 1903 – June 16, 1975) was an American record label executive, songwriter, and record producer. As the founder of Peacock Records and the eventual owner of Duke Records, he was responsible for developing the caree ...

signed Carlton to the

Back Beat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a pi ...

Record label, which Robey had started in 1957. Shortly after signing with the label, Carlton relocated to

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas, to be closer to his new label.

Career

His first single with

Back Beat Records Back Beat Records was an American record label launched in 1957, as the Houston-based soul sub-label of Duke Records, when it was run by Don Robey. ABC Records assumed ownership of Back Beat on May 23, 1973, as part of ABC's acquisition of Bac ...

, "Competition Ain't Nothing" became a huge hit on the UK northern soul scene after its release on the UK's Action Records label. Carlton was listed as one of the ''

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...

'' Best R&B Artists of 1970 in the December 26 issue of the magazine. In January 1971, Carlton had a hit on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Best Selling Soul Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart with " I Can Feel It". It spent three weeks in the chart, peaking at no. 47. Carlton finally saw major success in the United States with a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of Robert Knight's "

". This song went to number 6 in 1974 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and number 11 on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart. Back Beat Records owner Robey sold his labels to

ABC Records ABC Records was an American record label founded in New York City in 1955. It originated as the main popular music label operated by the Am-Par Record Corporation. Am-Par also created the Impulse! jazz label in 1960. It acquired many labels befo ...

in 1972. Beginning in 1976, Carlton became embroiled in a

royalty Royalty may refer to: * Any individual monarch, such as a king, queen, emperor, empress, etc. * Royal family, the immediate family of a king or queen regnant, and sometimes his or her extended family * Royalty payment for use of such things as int ...

dispute with ABC Records that caused him to stop recording for some time. He then signed with

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

in 1977, but only released one single on that label. 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 20th Century Fox Records (also known as 20th Fox Records and 20th Century Records, or simply 20th Century Fox Film Scores and Fox Records) was a wholly owned subsidiary of film studio 20th Century Fox. The history of the label covers three dis ...

. A Haywood-penned single, "

", became a major hit in 1981, peaking at number 2 on the soul chart and earning Carlton a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male at the

24th Annual Grammy Awards The 24th Annual Grammy Awards were held on February 24, 1982, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, and were broadcast live on American television. The event recognized the accomplishments of musicians during the year 1981. Quincy Jones was the ...

. in 1982. The track peaked at number 34 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. Carlton's subsequent album, ''Carl Carlton'', went

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

in 1981. "She's a Bad Mama Jama" has since become a staple of

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

s and soundtracks and is often

sample Sample or samples may refer to: Base meaning * Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set * Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal * Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of s ...

d in

rap music Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...

. 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 The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series ''American Soundtrack''. His performance of "Everlasting Love" was included on the accompanying live album that was released in 2004. On August 1, 2010, Carlton released his first

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

single entitled "God Is Good". On April 16, 2011, Carlton was nominated for a

Detroit Music Award The Detroit Music Awards Foundation is a Michigan 501(c)(3) organization, whose mission is to recognize Detroit area musicians working on a national, regional, and local level. The Foundation supports and nurtures the musical community in Detroi ...

in the "Outstanding Gospel/Christian Vocalist" category.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Television appearances

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlton, Carl 1953 births 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century American male singers 20th-century American singers 21st-century African-American male singers 21st-century American male singers Living people African-American male songwriters American soul musicians American child singers American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters ABC Records artists Northern soul musicians Singers from Detroit Singer-songwriters from Michigan