Songfacts®:

• "'Cause I Love You" is the moment the Stax Records story officially began. Before the label was called Stax, it went by the name Satellite Records, and in August 1960, this father-daughter duet became its first regional hit, the spark that lit one of the greatest soul music empires in America.
• The song originated when Rufus Thomas, a popular Memphis DJ and entertainer, booked a session at the brand-new Satellite studio and brought along his 17-year-old daughter Carla, plus his son Marvell, who sat in on keyboards. Out of that family field trip came "'Cause I Love You," a song Rufus wrote himself.
• The track was released as Satellite single S-102, backed with "Deep Down Inside." It became the studio's first bona fide hit, and Atlantic's Atco Records picked it up for national distribution, billing it as "Carla and Rufus." The momentum helped the little Memphis outfit reinvent itself as Stax Records.
• "'Cause I Love You" is built on a classic call-and-response pattern, a backbone of gospel and blues, but what makes it sparkle is the chemistry between the Thomases. Carla's teenage voice radiates a youthful, passionate, and slightly dramatic teenage love, while Rufus answers with earthy, paternal confidence.
• This was Carla Thomas's very first recording - made while she was still a high school senior - and it marked the beginning of a career that would eventually earn her the title "The Queen of Memphis Soul."
• Tucked behind that family story is another bit of Memphis magic: the song also marked the studio debut of a 14-year-old Booker T. Jones. He was supposed to be in math class that morning when future Stax legend David Porter forged him a hall pass, swiped the band room keys, and drove him to the studio.
  
  "We sped over there just in time for me to play sax on 'Cause I Love You,'" Jones recalled to Uncut magazine. That impromptu session turned into a teenage apprenticeship; after-school gigs that led to Booker T. & the MG's and the unmistakable sound of Stax.