"Carnival Time" is a New Orleans Mardi Gras-themed R&B song that was performed by Al Johnson and recorded in 1960.
[1] After spending his early years in Houston, he returned to New Orleans at the age of ten settling in the Lower Ninth Ward.
[1] His father bought a piano for his sisters and a trombone for his brother which Johnson took interest, and learning the basic chord changes in different keys.
[1] His early musical influences included Sugar Boy Crawford, Fats Domino and Smiley Lewis, to name a few.
[2] When he returned to New Orleans in late 1964, he found that Ruffino had died and that a protracted legal fight over royalties and rights to his music, among others, had left him with virtually nothing to show for his songs.