Although Carla Thomas released albums in the 1990s and in the 2000s, she is best known for the work she completed for both Atlantic Records and most notably, Stax Records in the 1960s. Her first record, Cause I Love You, was a duet with her father, with brother Marvell on keyboards, that was released by Satellite Records, which eventually became Stax Records. Recorded when Thomas was still attending Hamilton High School in Memphis, the record drew enough local attention to catch the interest of Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records. He signed a deal with the owners of Satellite Records, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, to distribute Cause I Love You and thus paved the way for Thomas’ most famous single, "Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)," reaching number 10 on the pop chart and number 5 on the R&B chart.

While she continued to have success on the R&B charts throughout the 1960s, her only other solo top 40 hit on the pop chart was "B-A-B-Y," reaching number 14 in 1966. Her duet, "Tramp," with Otis Redding reached number 26 on the pop chart the following year.and her album of duets with Otis Redding, King & Queen, was a number 18 hit in the UK Albums Chart.

Thanks to the new blockbuster film Baby Driver, by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz/The World’s End - trilogy/Scott Pilgrim vs The World), Carla Thomas is seeing a huge resurgence in song plays on Spotify, as the film includes significant use of "B-A-B-Y". 

The music overall is a HUGE part of the narrative of the film, the premise is, the main character Baby (Ansel Elgort) meets the waitress Debora (Lily James) who becomes the love of his life, in the diner she is working at, & she is humming ‘B-A-B-Y’ by Carla Thomas. He asks her what she is singing, she explains, & cue the next scene where he goes into a record store, looks in the rack, & literally picks up a vinyl copy of the Carla Thomas album to buy… Yup album art front & centre on the screen. And yup, that exact same LP we reissued on vinyl just last week. Then flip to the next scene where Baby is in his apartment, the album is on the stereo & the Carla Thomas track plays as the feature moment of the scene. (Debora reprises her singing of the song too in a couple of later parts of the film).

Listen to Carla Thomas here on Spotify.