Song:Patches
Album:Snatching It Back
Clarence Carter is a singer that personifies southern soul and more specifically Muscle Shoals soul. Patches has been his biggest hit in his long career. He was born blind on Jan. 14, 1936 in Montgomery, AL. He taught himself to play the guitar by listening to the blues and majored in music at Alabama State University. He could transcribe music to braille. With blind classmate Calvin Scott, he formed Clarence & Clavin in 1960 and recorded a couple of singles for Fairlane Records. They renamed themselves C & C Boys when they moved to Duke Records. But Carter's big break came when the duo recorded at Rick Hall's Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals in 1965. They started going places in 1966 when Scott was injured in a car accident and the two had a falling out over his medical bills. Carter signed as a solo artist with Fame Records with national distribution on Atlantic's Atco label. Working with the Muscle Shoals guys is exactly what Carter needed as in 1967 Slip Away reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. This began a long string of R & B chart hits and Back Door Santa was a top ten pop hit in 1968. But Patches was Carter's biggest hit and reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970. Patches was orginally recorded by Chairmen Of The Board and written by lead singer General Johnson and producer arranger Ron Dunbar. Carter gave it a country soul spin that still sounds great today. Carter went to ABC Records in 1973 and really didn't have much success in the 70s. But he returned with a bang in 1989 with the smash hit Strokin' on Ichiban Records. This Rhino comp covers his Atco recordings. Anyone interested in Strokin' should get the 2001 comp The Dr.'s Greatest Prescriptions on Koch. Clarence Carter still tours today and last recorded on his own label in 2005. Here's Clarence Carter performing Patches on the British TV show Disco 2 in 1970.
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