Patches (Chairmen of the Board song)


"Patches" is a country soul song written by General Johnson and Ron Dunbar and best known in the 1970 hit version by Clarence Carter. It won the 1971 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song.

Chairmen of the Board

The song was written by General Johnson, the lead singer of Chairmen of the Board, with Ron Dunbar, who worked in A&R and record production at the Invictus record label, owned and overseen by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, formerly of Motown. Dunbar was often credited with co-writing hit songs at Invictus with "Edyth Wayne", a pseudonym used by Holland-Dozier-Holland during the time when they were in legal dispute with Motown and its music publishing arm Jobete to which they had been contracted.
The song tells a story about how a boy born and raised in poverty in Alabama "on a farm way back up in the woods" took over responsibility for his family from his dying father. "Patches" was included on Chairmen of the Board's first album, The Chairmen of the Board, and was the B-side of the group's July 1970 single, "Everything's Tuesday", their third chart hit.

Clarence Carter

The blind blues singer Clarence Carter heard the song, later saying: "I heard it on the Chairmen of the Board LP and liked it, but I had my own ideas about how it should be sung. It was my idea to make the song sound real natural..." Initially he thought "that it would be degrading for a black man to sing a song so redolent of subjugation" but was persuaded to do so by record producer Rick Hall, who told him that it related to his own personal history as he was growing up.
Carter recorded the song at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with Hall as producer and musicians including Junior Lowe, Jesse Boyce, and Freeman Brown. Carter's recording was released in July 1970 and was described by a Billboard reviewer as a "powerful blues item" featuring a "blockbuster vocal work-out." The record rose to #4 on the Hot 100, #2 on the R&B chart, and #2 on the UK singles chart.
Following Carter's success, the song won the 1971 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song for its writers, Johnson and Dunbar.

Chart history

Weekly charts

;Clarence Carter
Chart Peak
position
Australia 10
Canada RPM Top Singles16
-
UK2
US Billboard Hot 1004
U.S. Billboard R&B2
US Cash Box Top 1001

;Ray Griff version
Chart Peak
position
Canada RPM Country16
U.S. Billboard Country26

;Jerry Reed cover
Chart Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Country30

Year-end charts

Other versions

A reggae version was recorded late in 1970 by The Rudies, later known as Greyhound. Another version by Canadian country singer Ray Griff reached #26 on the US country music chart the same year. The song was also recorded by Alabama some time before 1980, Jerry Reed in 1982, and by George Jones and B.B. King on the album Rhythm, Country and Blues in 1994.
A parody version of the song performed by Joe Cumia, brother of Anthony Cumia of Opie and Anthony fame, titled "Black Earl" was often played on the Ron and Fez show.

Marvin

In 1984, the song was rewritten and rearranged in Portuguese as "Marvin " by the Brazilian band Titãs and released on their self-titled debut album. The lyrics tell the story of Marvin, a young farmer whose father dies, leaving him responsible for making ends meet for his family. A live version taken off their 1988 live album Go Back was released as their eighth single and a second live version, acoustic and retitled simply as "Marvin", was released on their MTV Unplugged album Acústico MTV, becoming a hit in Brazil.

Cover versions