Mel Carter

Carter was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.^[1] At age 16, he studied singing with vocalist Little Jimmy Scott. Carter recorded for Sam Cooke's SAR (Derby Records) in the early 1960s and had his first hit in 1963 at the age of 24 with "When a Boy Falls in Love", which was co-written by Cooke.

By the time he reached his commercial peak with Imperial Records in the middle of the decade, he was specializing in pop ballads. His biggest success was the Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me", which reached Number 8 in 1965. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[2] He had a couple of other Top 40 entries over the next year, "Band of Gold" and "All of a Sudden My Heart Sings", as well as a few other easy listening sellers.

Carter appeared on the DVD of the PBS special, Doo Wop 51, recorded in 2001 performing his hit; he also appeared on another PBS special, Magic Moments: The Best of 50s Pop, performing a tribute to Billy Williams ("I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter") and Tommy Edwards ("It's All in the Game").

Carter later acted on television programs such as Quincy, M.E.; Sanford and Son; Marcus Welby, M.D.; The Eddie Capra Mysteries as Albert Crane; CHiPs; and Magnum, P.I.; and in films such as Friday Foster (1975); Chesty Anderson, USN (1976); American Raspberry (1977); and Angel (1984).