{"id":71609,"date":"2025-12-15T22:37:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71609\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T22:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:37:07","slug":"carl-carlton-funk-singer-behind-shes-a-bad-mama-jama-dies-at-72","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/71609\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Carlton, funk singer behind ‘She\u2019s a Bad Mama Jama,’ dies at 72"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carl Carlton, the funk and R&B singer known for upbeat, era-embodying singles like \u201cEverlasting Love\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s a Bad Mama Jama (She\u2019s Built, She\u2019s Stacked)\u201d has died. He was 72.<\/p>\n

Carlton\u2019s son, Carlton Hudgens II, posted to social media<\/a> confirming the death on Sunday. \u201cRIP Dad, Legend Carl Carlton singer of She\u2019s a Bad Mama Jama. Long hard fight in life and you will be missed.\u201d The post did not cite a cause of death.<\/p>\n

Born Carlton Hudgens in Detroit in 1953, he debuted as \u201cLittle Carl\u201d Carlton, but changed his stage name and moved to Houston after he was signed to the local label Back Beat Records. He had a minor soul-scene hit in 1971 with \u201cI Can Feel It,\u201d and broke through nationally in 1974 when his regal cover of Robert Knight\u2019s \u201cEverlasting Love\u201d hit No. 6 on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 and spent 15 weeks on that chart.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Carlton is perhaps best known for his 1981 single, \u201cShe\u2019s a Bad Mama Jama (She\u2019s Built, She\u2019s Stacked),\u201d a grooving and awestruck ode to the female form that hit No. 22 on the Hot 100 and helped his self-titled album that year reach gold status.<\/p>\n

The song has enjoyed a long life in popular culture \u2014 it\u2019s been sampled by rappers like Foxy Brown, BigXThaPlug and Flo Milli, and frequently appeared on soundtracks for TV shows and films like \u201cFriends.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued releasing records into the \u201880s, and appeared several times on \u201cAmerican Bandstand\u201d and \u201cSoul Train,\u201c though his output slowed in the \u201890s. In 2003, he performed for Barry Glazer\u2019s TV special, \u201cAmerican Soundtrack: Rhythm, Love, and Soul,\u201d which featured Aretha Franklin and other marquee R&B and soul acts. His last album was 2010\u2019s gospel LP \u201cGod Is Good.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carl Carlton, the funk and R&B singer known for upbeat, era-embodying singles like \u201cEverlasting Love\u201d and \u201cShe\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[36535,36534,36540,1840,36536,36539,36544,4589,3443,9,24,36144,63,36541,36537,36538,36542,134,136,135,36543],"class_list":{"0":"post-71609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-bad-mama-jama","9":"tag-carl-carlton","10":"tag-carlton-hudgens-ii","11":"tag-death","12":"tag-everlasting-love","13":"tag-funk-singer","14":"tag-gold-status","15":"tag-hot","16":"tag-life","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-no","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-single","22":"tag-soul-train","23":"tag-soundtrack","24":"tag-stacked","25":"tag-staten-island","26":"tag-staten-island-headlines","27":"tag-staten-island-news","28":"tag-tv-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}