Launched within the autumn of 1966, Carla was the third album that the then 23-year-old Carla Thomas launched for Stax Information, following within the wake of her earlier long-players, Consolation Me – launched earlier that very same yr – and her 1961 debut LP, Gee Whiz. Serving to to propel Carla up the charts (the album finally peaked at No. 7 within the US R&B albums chart and No. 130 in its pop counterpart) was the infectious single “B-A-B-Y,” a traditional slice of Memphis soul written by Stax’s rising songwriting duo, Isaac Hayes and David Porter.
“B-A-B-Y” was an enormous crossover single. It first charted within the US R&B singles chart in September 1966 and finally plateaued at a powerful No. 3 (considerably, it additionally broke into the US Sizzling 100, making No. 14).
A Memphis native, Carla Thomas – whose beguiling voice was a mix of sweetness and toughness – was one thing of a Stax veteran by 1966, having joined the label in 1960, when it was nonetheless often known as Satellite tv for pc Information. That yr she scored a regional hit with “’Cause I Love You,” a catchy duet along with her father, singer and Memphis radio persona, Rufus Thomas (Carla was the second of his three kids, all of whom have been musically-inclined).
At the moment, Carla was solely 17 and nonetheless in highschool, however “’Cause I Love You” modified each her life and Stax’s future. The tune was enthusiastically obtained by Atlantic producer and promoter Jerry Wexler, who persuaded Satellite tv for pc’s co-owners, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, to signal a distribution settlement with the label which helped to place it on the map. With Atlantic’s assist, in early 1961 Carla scored her first solo nationwide hit with the self-penned “Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes),” which made the US R&B Prime 5. Its success persuaded Stewart and Axton (who would change the label’s title from Satellite tv for pc to Stax that very same yr) to pursue the R&B market quite than discover the nation and rockabilly types of their preliminary Satellite tv for pc releases within the late 50s.
Understandably, “B-A-B-Y,” with its pulsing bassline and sweetly soulful chorus, was the opening reduce on the Carla LP, although the singer’s earlier hit single, the jaunty “Let Me Be Good To You” (one other Hayes-Porter quantity), which reached No. 11 within the US R&B charts earlier in 1966, was additionally included.
As well as, the album showcased Carla Thomas as a more-than-capable songwriter. Ever since “Gee Whiz,” she had supplied some materials for her personal albums, and Carla was no exception. She contributed the vivacious, brassy R&B groove “I Got You, Boy,” the pleading romantic ballad “What Have You Got To Offer Me,” and co-authored the midtempo, string-laden “Fate” with Isaac Hayes and James Cross.
However like many R&B albums of the 60s, Carla additionally featured covers of acquainted pop, blues, and even nation hits. Of the latter, “I Fall To Pieces” is Carla’s heartfelt studying of Nashville queen Patsy Cline’s 1961 hit confessional, and she or he additionally delivers an excellent model of Hank Williams’ heart-rending anthem, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”
Carla additionally places her indelible stamp on blues maven Willie Dixon’s traditional “Little Red Rooster,” whereas Jimmy Reed’s chugging, brassy “Baby What You Want Me To Do” (that includes Steve Cropper’s razor-sharp guitar) segues into the super-smooth ballad “For Your Love,” a 1958 hit for R&B singer Ed Townsend.
The album’s poignant nearer, “Looking Back,” was co-written by singer Brook Benton and had been coated by crooner Nat King Cole in 1958, who reworked it right into a Prime 5 US pop and R&B hit. Totally different once more is “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me,” Carla’s tackle British singer Dusty Springfield’s 1966 transatlantic smash.
Just a few months after Carla was launched, Carla Thomas loved an excellent greater hit album within the form of King & Queen, a group of duets with Stax’s main man, Otis Redding, launched within the spring of 1967. Although that represented the business apex of her profession – and topped her the queen of Memphis soul – Carla continued to document for Stax up till 1973, earlier than quietly slipping off the R&B radar, solely briefly re-emerging 30 years later with a few dwell albums.
Carla stays her most commercially profitable solo album and arguably her most potent inventive assertion (although 1969’s The Queen Alone comes shut). Over 50 years later, it stands up as a must-hear, go-to album within the Stax catalogue.
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