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Blind since birth in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 14, 1936, Clarence Carter achieved success in the 1960s with a driving rhythm and blues sound and clever lyrics. He has had top ten hits with several singles including the Grammy Award-nominated "Patches" in 1970 and "I'd Rather Be an Old Man's Sweetheart" in 1969 and a raft of albums from This Is Clarence Carter in 1968 to Mr. Old School in 2020. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in music from Alabama State College having attended the Alabama School for the Blind in Talladega in his home State. He performed with fellow blind student Calvin Scott as Clarence & Calvin in the early '60s and later as C & C Boys with singles including "I Wanna Dance But I Don't Know How", "I Don't Know (School Girl)" and "Hey Marvin". After Calvin Scott was injured in a car crash, Clarence Carter continued as a solo act with singles including "Tell Daddy", "Thread the Needle" and "The Road of Love". Noted for cleverly salacious lyrics, he began to make note of his lack of sight in numbers such as "Looking for a Fox". Many singles followed including several that placed well on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Chart - "Slip Away" got to number 2 in 1968, "Too Weak to Fight" was number 3 in 1969 and "Snatching It Back" number 4 in 1969. Concert albums have included Live with the Dr. and Live in Johannesburg and his compilation releases include Dr. CC's Greatest Prescriptions: The Best of Clarence Carter (1991), Patches: The Best of Clarence Carter (1997), The Fame Singles, Volume One (2012) and The Fame Singles, Volume Two (2013). Clarence Carter's raunchy single "Strokin'" has featured in films such as The Nutty Professor (1996) starring Eddie Murphy and the 2011 William Friedkin crime drama Killer Joe starring Matthew McConaughey. Clarence Carter died at a hospice facility in Atlanta, Georgia, of complications from pneumonia on May 13, 2026, at the age of 90.
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