Carl Carlton, Beloved R&B Hit Maker, Has Passed Away

Carl Carlton, the singer behind beloved R&B hits like “She’s A Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked)” and “Everlasting Love,” has passed away. His son Carlton Hudgens II announced the passing in a message on Facebook, accompanied by a photo of his father with a microphone. “RIP Dad, Legend Carl Carlton singer of She’s a Bad Mama Jama,” he wrote. “Long hard fight in life and you will be missed.” Carlton suffered a stroke in 2019, but no cause of death has been announced.

Throughout his multi-decade career, Carlton established himself as a consistent hit-maker at the intersection of soul, funk, and disco, hailed by the Detroit Free Press as “one of the most significant R&B figures in Detroit’s post-Motown era.” He notched his biggest pop-chart success with 1974’s ebullient “Everlasting Love,” which he took to the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Originally issued as a B-side in 1973, the track got a disco remix in 1974 and became a staple of the genre. It was one of the first disco tracks to cross over from dance club spins to radio airplay on its way to ubiquity, and it remains in heavy rotation on retro stations today.

But 1981’s “She’s A Bad Mama Jama” may loom even larger. A No. 22 pop hit and a No. 2 smash on the R&B chart, the funky post-disco jam has lingered in the public consciousness, appearing in numerous films and TV shows and becoming a foundational sample for hip-hop producers. Carlton’s smooth vocal, an agile complement to producer Leon Haywood’s synth-powered groove, was key to the song’s appeal.

Carlton’s run as a hit-maker predated those triumphs. Born Carlton Hudgens in Detroit in 1952, he got his start in the music business as a child. Discovered when a neighbor heard him singing during a pickup baseball game and mistook him for the radio, he began recording and performing under the name Little Carl Carlton. His 1968 single “Competition Ain’t Nothing” landed him a record deal with Houston’s Back Beat Records, precipitating a move to Texas. There, he began launching songs to the R&B charts, such as “I Can Feel It” and “Drop By My Place.”

Carlton logged more hits after “Bad Mama Jama,” including his reggae-tinged cover of the Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Loving.” By the 1990s, his recording career was slowing down, but he continued to perform live for many years — both in Detroit, where he was revered as a local legend, and across the United States. In 2010, he released one final album, God Is Good, which applied his formidable vocal talents to a gospel sound.