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 Invictusrecord 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.[3]
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. After his father dies, he has to endure extra labor as the oldest son of the family, by farming and going to school. However, a rainstorm washes the crops away and he has to work extra hard in the fields. Years later, his mother dies and the other members of his family move away, leaving him as the man of the farm. This story, which featured spoken recitations, ends unresolved. "Patches" was included on Chairmen of the Board's first album, The Chairmen of the Board (later reissued as Give Me Just a Little More Time), and was the B-side of the group's July 1970 single, "Everything's Tuesday", their third chart hit.[4][5]
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..."[6] 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.[7]
Carter recorded the song at the FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, with Hall as producer and musicians including Junior Lowe (guitar), Jesse Boyce (bass), and Freeman Brown (drums).[6] 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."[8] The record rose to No. 4 on the Hot 100,[9] No. 2 on the R&B chart,[10] and No. 2 on the UK singles chart.[11]
Following Carter's success, the song won the 1971 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Song for its writers, Johnson and Dunbar.[12]
In 1984, the song was rewritten and rearranged in Portuguese as "Marvin (Patches)" by the Brazilian band Titãs and released on their self-titled debut album.[22] The idea to adapt the song came from band member Nando Reis, who found out about the song from the cover released by reggae band King Sounds & The Israelites. The new namesake was chosen as a tribute to a recently deceased Marvin Gaye. The new 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.
