Carla Thomas, 'The Queen Of Memphis Soul', celebrated her 79th birthday yesterday (21
Dec 1942). She is one of three children of Rufus Thomas. Her sister
Vaneese is also a singer and her brother Marvell is a
keyboardist/producer. She was a member of WDIA Radio's Teen Town singers at the age of ten, a
station her father was a DJ on.
Her first recording "Cause I Love You" was in 1960 with her father, on the fledgling Satellite label founded by
Jim Stewart, and later joined by his sister Estelle Axton, which would
later become the legendary Stax in 1961. The first record was a regional
hit which gained the attention of Jerry Wexler of Atlantic records who
made a deal with Satellite to distribute their records and have first
right of refusal on releases. It was the first recording at the 926 E.
McLemore studio which is now the
Stax Museum and
would be pivotal in Jim Stewart's conversion to R&B music as the label
was predominantly a pop and country label prior to this.
Her follow up, and first solo single, "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)", a song she wrote when she was 16, was released on Atlantic (as were
most of her singles until 1965) and it was to become her biggest hit
reaching #5 R&B and #10 Hot 100. The closest she came to it was in
1966 with "B-A-B-Y" which got to #14 Hot 100, although she had twenty singles in total in
the Hot 100 throughout her career.
After releasing around forty plus singles and seven albums her recording
career more or less ended in 1972 after her appearance at WattStax
although she did perform live and I've seen a video of her performing as
recently as 2017. Ironically, her final single on Stax in 1973 was a
version of a Phillip Mitchell song "Love Among People" recorded in 1972 by
Billy Durham
which is one of her best recordings.
A previously unreleased song "I'll Never Stop Loving You" was later discovered and put out on the 100 Club 12th anniversary
single in 1991 and was later available commercial on Ady Croasdell's
Horace's label. I 'think' it may have been taken from a Stax album also
released in 1991 "Hidden Gems", a CD of all previously unreleased Carla Thomas material.
Another spin on Northern Soul dancefloors was given to "I Play for Keeps" from her 1969 "Memphis Queen" album which was never released as a
single until reissued by Kent in 2016 backed with Barbara Lewis "The
Stars".
Surprisingly, her whole catalogue is available on Spotify except one single
"The Time For Love" / "(I'm Going Back To) Living In The City" from 1970 The same catalogue number
had two variants, the previous one and a second which had a Donny Hathaway
written song "Never Be True" along with "The Time For Love Is Anytime" (note the difference in title name). So any help with this one would complete the discography of everything she
has recorded.
It's a bit odd that they aren't included on "The Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles, Vol. 2: 1968-1971" (not complete then is it!), but I did find one of the tracks on a 1994
Carla Thomas CD compilation titled "Sugar".
Albums
1961 - Gee Whiz [Atlantic #8057]
Full Album
HERE
1965 - Comfort Me [Stax #STAX 706]
US #134, R&B #11
Full Album
HERE
1966 - Carla [Stax #STAX 709]
US #130, R&B #7
Full Album
HERE
1967 - The Queen Alone [Stax #S 718]
US #133, R&B #16
Full Album
HERE
1967 - King & Queen (with Otis Redding) [Stax #S 716]
US #36, R&B #5
Full Album
HERE
1969 - Memphis Queen [Stax #STS 2019]
US #151, R&B #26
Full Album
HERE
1971 - Love Means... [Stax #STS-2044]
US #213, R&B #42
Full Album
HERE
1991 - Hidden Gems [Stax #SCD-8568-2]
Full Album
HERE
Singles
Rufus & Carla Thomas
Carla Thomas
Rufus & Carla Thomas
Rufus & Friend (Carla Thomas)
Carla Thomas
Rufus & Carla
Carla Thomas
Rufus & Carla
Carla Thomas
*Features backing vocals from Gladys Knight & The Pips
Rufus & Carla
Carla Thomas
Otis & Carla
Carla Thomas
Otis & Carla
Carla Thomas
Otis & Carla
Carla Thomas
*Sweet Inspirations on backing vocals
** from musical Hair
Johnnie Taylor, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Pervis Staples, Carla
Thomas, Mavis Staples & Cleotha Staples
1969 - Soul-A-Lujah (Vocal) / Soul-A-Lujah (Inst) [Stax #0040]
Johnnie Taylor & Carla Thomas
William Bell & Carla Thomas
Carla Thomas
1970 - The Time For Love /
(I'm Going Back To) Living In The City [Stax #0061]
1970 -
Never Be True
/ The Time For Love Is Anytime [Stax #0061]
William Bell & Mavis Staples / William Bell, Carla Thomas
1970 - Leave The Girl Alone /
All I Have To Do Is Dream
[Stax #0067]
Carla Thomas
1971 -
Love Means (You Never Have To Say You're Sorry)
/
Daughter You're Still You're Daddy's Child
[Stax #None] (promo issue only)
1972 -
You've Got A Cushion To Fall On* /
Love Means (You Never Have To Say You're Sorry)
[Stax #0113]
*backing vocals by The Emotions.
Gee Whiz
B-A-B-Y from 22 Sep 1966 on 'Where The Action Is'
Backed by sister Vaneese and David Porter on recording
Comfort Me on 'The Beat'
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