His professional music career began with friend Calvin Scott, signing to the Fairlane label to release "I Wanna Dance But I Don't Know How", as Clarence & Calvin, the following year. After the 1962 release of "I Don't Know (School Girl)," the pair joined
Duke Records, renaming themselves the C & C Boys and releasing four singles for the label, though none were commercially successful. In 1965, the duo recorded "Step by Step" at
Rick Hall's
FAME Studios in
Muscle Shoals; it was released on the
Atlantic Records' subsidiary
Atco label, but it also failed to chart. The duo performed regularly in clubs in
Birmingham, Alabama in 1966. After Scott was seriously injured in an auto accident, Carter continued as a solo singer, and recorded for the Fame label. In 1967 he recorded "
Tell Daddy", which reached number 35 on the
Billboard R&B chart and inspired
Etta James'
answer record, "
Tell Mama", for which Carter was credited as writer. At the end of 1967, Carter joined Atlantic Records. He then began a string of hits on the R&B and pop charts, starting with "Slip Away" (number 2 R&B, number 6 pop), which has been described as "a superior cheating ballad spotlighting his anguished, massive baritone alongside the remarkably sinuous backing of Fame's exemplary backing band", At the end of 1968, he had a seasonal pop hit with the raunchy and funky "
Back Door Santa" (number 4 Christmas pop), and toured nationally. His backing singers included
Candi Staton; they married in 1970 and produced a son, Clarence Carter Jr., before divorcing in 1973. Carter continued to have hits in 1969 and 1970, with "Snatching It Back", "The Feeling Is Right", "Doin' Our Thing", and "I Can't Leave Your Love Alone" all reaching both the US pop and R&B charts. The
B-side of "Snatching It Back" was a remake of a remake of
James Carr's "The Dark End of the Street", entitled "Making Love (At the Dark End of the Street)". Carter's biggest hit came in 1970 with his version of "
Patches", first recorded by
Chairmen of the Board, which was a
UK number 2 hit and a US number 4. The record 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, and won the
Grammy Award for Best R&B Song in 1971. Following "Slip Away" and "Too Weak to Fight", it was Carter's third million-seller. According to writer Brian Ward, Carter "virtually made a career from tales of unbridled love and illicit sex..." With the advent of
disco in the mid-1970s, Carter's career suffered. "Strokin'" was given further acclaim when it was used in the
Eddie Murphy remake of
The Nutty Professor. It was most recently used in
William Friedkin's film
Killer Joe. Carter's soul sound also found an audience within the then-nascent
hip-hop community. Most notably, the horn break from "Back Door Santa" is sampled in the
Run-D.M.C. Christmas song "
Christmas in Hollis". Carter's later songs continue to appeal to a primarily African-American working-class audience that is also interested in contemporary blues artists such as
Denise LaSalle,
Bobby Rush,
Marvin Sease and
Sir Charles Jones. He has continued recording, releasing six albums for the Ichiban label and, since 1996, establishing his own Cee Gee Entertainment label. He has also continued to tour regularly in the
Southern states and internationally. ==Discography==