Photo Credit: Clarence Carter
Soul singer Clarence Carter, known for his 1970 hit “Patches” and the raunchy late ‘80s favorite “Strokin’,” has passed away at the age of 90.
Soul singer Clarence Carter has passed away at the age of 90, as confirmed by Rodney Hall, president of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a studio the musician often frequented. A spokesperson for Carter’s ex-wife, Candi Staton, also revealed that he had recently been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer and was battling pneumonia and sepsis.
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1936, Carter was blind from birth and considered music a lifeline from an early age. He established himself in the industry in the late ‘60s, thanks to his single “Slip Away,” which charted at #6 on the Hot 100.
Carter released a follow-up hit later that same year, “Back Door Santa,” which charted even higher at #4. But in 1970 came his biggest hit, “Patches, which also peaked at #4, and won him a Grammy for Best R&B Song in 1971.
“I think ‘Patches’ really etched me into the music world,” Carter said in 2010. “Where people are probably going to remember me for a long time. Which I always wanted—but I never knew it would happen that way.”
However, Carter’s popularity began to wane in the mid-70s, partly due to his penchant for writing raunchy tunes, which were by and large not radio-friendly. Carter’s refusal to tone it down would eventually pay off in the late 1980s when his hit “Strokin’,” despite being too crude for radio play, launched him back into the cultural zeitgeist.
He married Candi Staton in 1970, but the pair divorced in 1973 as a result of his infidelities—but not before the birth of their son, Clarence Carter Jr. The two have remained on positive terms over the years, and she wrote of him on Facebook last year, “Clarence Carter was an amazing husband and is such a brilliant man. I have fond memories with him.”
In addition to Clarence Carter Jr., Carter is also survived by his son, Herbert Dixon Wilkerson.
