Clarence Carter (born 14 January 1936, Montgomery, Alabama) is a singer and musician. Carter’s earliest releases were as half of the duo Clarence And Calvin. Also known as the «C And C Boys», the blind duo made seven singles, the last of which was recorded at Fame’s Muscle Shoals studio. When his partner, Calvin Thomas (aka Scott), suffered serious injuries in a car accident in 1966, Carter became a solo act (Calvin himself later reappeared as a solo act to record two Dave Crawford-produced Atco Records singles in 1969-70 and a Clarence Paul-produced 1971 album for Stax Records…
«The Feeling Is Right,» «Doing Our Thing» and «Patches.» «Patches» (first recorded by Chairmen of the Board) was a UK number 2 and a U.S. number 4 in 1970, and won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1971. This disc sold over one million copies, and received a gold disc awarded by the R.I.A.A. in September 1970, just two months after its release.Following «Slip Away» and «Too Weak to Fight», it was Carter’s third million-seller.
With the advent of disco in the mid 1970s, Carter’s career suffered, before he found a new audience with songs such as «Strokin’» and «Dr. C.C.» in the 1980s and 1990s, which appealed (and still appeal) to a primarily African-American working-class audience that was also interested in contemporary blues and soul artists such as Denise LaSalle, Bobby Rush, Marvin Sease and Sir Charles Jones. «Strokin’» was given great acclaim when it was used in the Eddie Murphy film The Nutty Professor. Carter’s strong soul sound also found an audience within the then-nascent hip-hop community. Most notably, the horn break from Carter’s song «Back Door Santa», is sampled in the Run-D.M.C. Christmas song «Christmas in Hollis».