Carla Thomas - Carla (1966)

Carla Thomas in an American soul singer.

Following her debut hit "Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)" and its accompanying album in 1961, there was a four year period which saw no new Carla Thomas albums, only singles. 1966 remedied this by seeing the release of two new albums, first Comfort Me and then Carla later in the year. By now she was on the Stax label proper, rather than Atlantic.

Carla featured a great collection of tunes with the recognisable Stax R&B sound, with backing from Booker T & The MGs and The Memphis Horns. It included a number of country and pop songs given Stax makeovers, among them Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", Patsy Cline's "I Fall To Pieces" and Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me", and blues tunes such as Willie Dixon's "Red Rooster" and Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me To Do". It also featured two great new songs from the songwriting partnership of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, both of which were released as singles and became hits. "Let Me Be Good To You" charted at #11 R&B, and then "B-A-B-Y" reached #3 R&B and #14 pop, becoming her new signature tune and her biggest hit as a solo artist.

Comfort Me (1966) <|> The Queen Alone (1967)
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Carla Thomas - Comfort Me (1966)

Carla Thomas in an American soul singer. 

Carla Thomas had been Stax Record's first home-grown star, her 1960 single "Gee Whiz" helping get the Memphis-based record label off the ground. Over the next few years Stax developed its own unique sound and identity, recording more hits with The Mar-Keys, Otis Redding and Booker T & The MGs. Carla Thomas released many singles over this four year period, none of which were big hits like "Gee Whiz", but many of which charted well. 1962's "I'll Bring It Home To You" got to #9 R&B and 1963's "What A Fool I've Been" got to #28 R&B. Up until 1965 all her singles were released on the Atlantic label, which was responsible for Stax's distribution in the early days.

In early 1966 her second solo album was released. The sound of Comfort Me was very different to that of her debut over five years earlier, as she was now backed by The MGs and The Memphis Horns, giving her music the lean, sparse R&B sound Stax was by now known for. Three of the songs on the album had seen release as singles, the brilliant title track in 1965 (which didn't chart), and both "No Time To Lose" and "A Woman's Love" in 1964 (which was the year the R&B chart had been temporarily discontinued, so they only appeared on the national pop chart at #67 and #71 respectively). All three songs were written by the MGs guitarist Steve Cropper (he co-wrote "A Woman's Love" with Carla herself). The rest of the songs were freshly recorded for the album, and featured covers of a few well-known pop songs done the Stax way - "What The World Needs Now", "Let It Be Me" and "Will You Love Me Tomorrow".

Gee Whiz (1961) <|> Carla (1966)
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Carla Thomas - Gee Whiz (1961)

Carla Thomas in an American soul singer.

Carla Thomas was born in Memphis in 1942, the daughter of R&B singer Rufus Thomas. Growing up in a musical family, in 1952 she became an underaged member of the Teen Town Singers, a group of high school students sponsored by the local WDIA radio station, and she sang with them all through her high school years. Her break came with some help from her father in 1960, with whom she recorded the R&B duet "Cause I Love You", which was released on a new Memphis label named Satellite Records. The song became a regional hit, and got the attention of Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records, who signed a deal with Satellite to have the single distributed through Atlantic. Before long Satellite had been renamed Stax.

Later the same year Carla recorded her first solo single, a teen-pop ditty she had written when she was 15. With Atlantic's assistance, "Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes)" reached not only #5 on the national R&B chart but #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1961. It became Stax's first national hit, and launched Carla's recording career, putting her in the spotlight as she got to perform the song on American Bandstand.

An album's worth of material was quickly put together, all in the same string-laden pop style of the single. It was a far cry from the hard soul sound Stax would later be known for, and the sound of the album has not aged well, but this was just the beginning, for both Carla and Stax. The album did generate another hit, "A Love Of My Own" getting to #20 on the R&B chart.

|> Comfort Me (1966)
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