AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Carl Carlton

Artist:Carl Carlton

Song:She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked)

Album:Everlasting: The Best of Carl Carlton

R&B singer Carl Carlton is best known for the 1974 top ten hit Everlasting Love. But you may not know that he scored a top five R&B hit with the 1981 single She's a Bad Mama Jama. What the two records have in common is that Carlton had terrible record company problems that killed his career. Despite that, he recorded two big hits though I would guess that many folks are familiar with She's a Bad Mama Jama, they may not know that Carlton recorded it. Of course the funny part is that both records are now owned by the same record company so you can get them on this comp. Carlton was an up and coming singer when he recorded for Back Beat Records in the late 60s. This label was owned by Don Robey who also owned Duke and Peacock. Carlton recorded an album for Back Beat. Then Robey sold everything to ABC Records in 1972. ABC picked up Carlton's contract and the 1974 single Everlasting Love reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Everlasting Love was a cover of Robert Knight's 1967 hit single. What Carlton was concerned about was royalties for his Back Beat album. Rather than go to court, ABC froze Carlton out until his contract expired. That wasn't going to be for a year and a half. Remember Carlton just had a big hit. So he couldn't get a record deal until singer songwriter Leon Haywood threw him a lifeline and got Carlton a record deal with 20th Century Records in 1981. The single She's a Bad Mama Jama reached #2 on the R&B Singles chart and #22 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also nominated for a Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male Grammy. Of course the song is memorable but I dunno if most folks know who recorded the song. Heywood produced the album, wrote She's a Bad Mama Jama and played keyboards on the album. So did George Duke and James Ingram and Ingram arranged the backup vocals. The problem was that 20th Century closed in 1982. And though Carlton recorded for RCA and Casablanca, his recording career was over in 1986. Both hits are owned by Universal so they are on this Hip-O Select comp. Carlton continued to perform live until he died on Dec. 12, 2025 at age 73. Here's Carl Carlton performing She's a Bad Mama Jama (She's Built, She's Stacked) on Solid Gold 1981.