Early Life and Career
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Douglas was based in the United Kingdom and his song "Kung Fu Fighting" hit number one in both the U.K. Singles Chart and the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1974. It was awarded gold status by the RIAA on 27 November 1974, and won a Grammy Award for Best Selling Single in that year's event. It eventually went on to sell 11 million records worldwide, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.
The song, which is an homage to martial arts films, has overshadowed the rest of Douglas' career, resulting in his appearance on cover versions of the song. He did release two other singles ("Blue Eyed Soul" and "Dance the Kung Fu", which was sampled by DJ Premier on his 2007 remix of Nike's 25th Air Force One anniversary single "Classic (Better Than I've Ever Been)", featuring Kanye West, Nas, KRS-One and Rakim) but he has ultimately become known in recording history as an example of a one hit wonder.
He was at one time managed by Eric Woolfson, later the primary songwriter behind The Alan Parsons Project.
In 1998, a re-recording of "Kung Fu Fighting", billed as 'Bus Stop featuring Carl Douglas', reached number 8 in the UK Singles Chart.
He is represented by music publisher Schacht Musikverlage (SMV) in Hamburg, Germany.
Read more about this topic: Carl Douglas
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:
“The secret of heaven is kept from age to age. No imprudent, no sociable angel ever dropt an early syllable to answer the longings of saints, the fears of mortals. We should have listened on our knees to any favorite, who, by stricter obedience, had brought his thoughts into parallelism with the celestial currents, and could hint to human ears the scenery and circumstance of the newly parted soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Parents vary in their sense of what would be suitable repayment for creating, sustaining, and tolerating you all those years, and what circumstances would be drastic enough for presenting the voucher. Obviously there is no repayment that would be sufficient . . . but the effort to call in the debt of life is too outrageous to be treated as anything other than a joke.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)