R.I.P. Carl Carlton

He knew a bad mama jama when he saw one and was unafraid to call her out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/15/2025 07:14AM by breno.

Always figured that was a Stevie Wonder song until recent years. Didn’t occur to me otherwise. Guess I never heard a DJ announce his name?
Probably because, who the hell is Carl Carlton? Never saw his records in shops. Never heard anyone talk about him. And I went through a phase where I was a super big funk fan. Did he have zero media presence despite having a big hit? If he ever appeared on “soul train” or American Bandstand or whatever I guess I missed it.

He also did "Everlasting Love," so he had two major, pretty ubiquitous hits. You somehow must've just managed to miss him.

Don't feel bad, Fab. If I had a dime for every worthwhile musical artist that came & went without me taking note of their music until after they've left the building, I'd have, like ... ummm ... uhhh ... well, I'd have a big shitload of money, ya see ...

I had known the name Loggins & Messina since I was in grade school, but had no idea what any of their songs were until Tift Merritt recorded a cover of "Danny's Song," a song which I'd heard probably a couple thousand times over the previous 40 years without ever having any idea it was even called "Danny's Song," let alone that it was by Loggins & Messina. It had just honestly never occurred to me to wonder what that song was called or who did it. It was just always there.

Something similar happens at least once or twice every year, when it will suddenly occur to me that I have no clue who recorded or what is the name of some song I've been hearing forever. It happened within the last couple of weeks, but I've already forgotten what the song was. I think it was a disco number, but I'm not sure.

Well, I didn't know who sang "Danny's Song" until this morning...I read your post and wondered if I knew the song. So, I found it on Spotify, and yep, heard it many, many times over the years. Also like you, I never bothered to wonder who sang it, probably because I don't really like it. But it is an earworm for sure.

I haven't thought about "Bad Mama Jama" for a loooong time, but had you asked me who sang it, I would have guessed with some degree of confidence it was The Commodores. I would have been mistaken.

This thread has planted "Bad Mama Jama" in my head, along with a couple of Commodores songs. But that's fine.

I'm not going to seek out "Danny's Song" to see if I know it already, because (1) I suspect that I do, and (2) I should let sleeping earworms lie.

I could inject "Danny's Song" straight into your brain with one simple phrase, as I guarantee you know the song if you've been anywhere near a radio since the mid-70s but, like me, never gave it enough thought to ever bother finding out what it was called. But it's the holiday season, and you're a good fellow, so I won't.

I do see now that in addition to Tift Merritt, Neko Case also recorded a version of it, for the soundtrack of Vinyl. So it seems to be well-liked amongst alt-country songbirds.

For the record, I neither like nor hate "Danny's Song." It's just one of those things that's been hanging around existing for 50 years that I've never paid much attention to, like Chunky candy bars.

breno that’s a brilliant and deceptively evil post because it pretty much GUARANTEES Delvin will have to hear “Danny’s song” now!!

(… and I know exactly what phrase you’re thinking of…)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/16/2025 11:20AM by Bip.