Clarence Carter, US soul star who had hits with Patches and more, dies aged 90

Clarence Carter, the US soul singer who had numerous hits including the transatlantic 1970 smash Patches, has died aged 90. His management company confirmed his death to the Guardian, saying he died on Wednesday following complications with pneumonia. Carter was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1936, and was blind from birth. His music career began with the duo Clarence & Calvin, later the C & C Boys, who recorded a number of singles during the early 1960s. When his partner Calvin Scott, who was also blind, was injured in a car accident, Carter went solo and had his first R&B chart hit in 1967 with the self-penned Tell Daddy. It inspired Etta James to write a cover version and riposte, Tell Mama, which reached the US Top 30. In 1968, he released arguably his most enduring track, Slip Away – now with more than 45m plays on Spotify. The mournful yet steadily strutting ballad, with Carter pleading with a woman to cheat on her partner with him, reached No 2 on the R&B chart and he crossed over in the US pop chart for the first time, reaching No 6. The song has since been used in numerous film soundtracks, including The Commitments, Almost Famous and Licorice Pizza. That year also brought another hit song, Too Weak to Fight, and the ribald Back Door Santa – “I ain’t like old Saint Nick / He don’t come but once a year” – which has endured as an offbeat Christmas classic, and was sampled in another: Run DMC’s Christmas in Hollis. …