THOMAS, CARLA - Carla (Sealed) (LP)

180 Gram Vinyl reissue of 1967's Carla. Carla Thomas was to Memphis' Stax Records what Aretha was to Atlantic: the label's reigning matriarch, able to wrap her glorious voice around B-A-B-Y and Let Me Be Good to You, chart-toppers from the precocious songwriting team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, as well as R&B standards like Willie Dixon's Little Red Rooster. Backed by the Stax house combo, fronted by Booker T. and Steve Cropper, Carla also shows off her storied versatility with knockout renderings of I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry and I Fall to Pieces.