LOTL Welcomes The Legendary Carl Carlton

Detroit native Carl Carlton got his start in the record business through baseball. When a neighbor yelled down from an apartment window to some kids playing baseball in vacant lot to stop playing ball and to turn that radio off, they yelled back "that ain't no radio, that's Carl!" The neighbor ran down to see where this astonishing soulful voice was coming from. Later, he took Carlton to Lando Records where he began recording in the late '60s as Little Carl Carlton."This Feeling's Rated Xtra" with a James Ingram tune, "Fighting in ihe Name of Love" on the B-side. It charted briefly, doing well enough for 20th Century to release the next single, "She's a Bad Mama Jama." "She's a Bad Mama Jama" earned Carlton a gold record in 1981, staying at number two for eight weeks straight, kept out of the number one spot by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie's "Endless Love." An album, Carl Carlton, was released with a front cover of a shirtless Carlton showing off his chiseled physique.