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Sunday 3 August 2014

Southern Soul Sunday 44


It is Southern Soul Sunday dynasty week with father and daughter Stax stalwards Rufus and Carla Thomas featuring.
Rufus first shot to fame as an artist on Sun with Bear Cat an answer song to Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog.
 After being released by Sun he became a prominent DJ in Memphis and was one of the first artists and mainstays of the newly formed Stax label being mostly famous for his Walking the Dog.
Another claim to fame but one I suspect he didn't boast about was that he is the only father ever to have debuted in the Hot 100 top ten after his daughter Carla who had a top 10 two years previously with Gee Whiz(Look at his Eyes)
After his death in 2001 at the ripe old age of 84 a street was named in his honour just off Memphis' famous Beale Street.
Carla Thomas is the Queen of Memphis Soul .She wrote Gee Whiz (Look at his Eyes) when she was 15 charting in 1961 when she was a 19 year old University student. This was the first of a myriad of hits including B-A-B-Y and of course Knock on Wood and Tramp with Otis Redding.
After all that build up here are a couple of their lesser known numbers

Rufus Thomas - Last Clean Shirt

Carla Thomas - Little Boy

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