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Doug Clark, Chapel Hill musician
By ANNE BLYTHE, Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL - Doug Clark, who put Chapel Hill on the music map with his original risque rock 'n' roll from the
1950s, old-fashioned rhythm and blues, beach music and cover tunes that he and his band, the Hot Nuts, played at
clubs, fraternity parties and other social gatherings for nearly half a century, died Monday, September 16, 2002,
at UNC Hospitals.
Clark, 66, died after an extended illness.
Clark grew up in Chapel Hill, when the public schools were segregated. He went to the former Lincoln High School,
an all-black school, where he was a drum major, played football, baseball and basketball, and served as the stage
manager for the theater club.
He made a career out of doing what he loved, playing music and performing with Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts, a band
that toured the country for 47 years.
Early on, they entertained their audiences by telling lewd jokes onstage. Students started jumping onstage with
them and spinning a few of their own, further pushing the band along the road to raunch at a time when most performers
did not talk or sing about sex.
"Their songs included subjects that in those days were taboo," said Cal Horton, town manager of Chapel
Hill. "They sang about sex. Of course now, all of it looks very mild, in retrospect."
Carl Fox, district attorney for Orange and Chatham counties, remembers being a teenager in Mount Olive when his
sister sneaked their albums into the house.
Their mother did not like her children listening to the music.
"I would call it risque rock or risque soul," Fox said. "It was like listening to Richard Pryor.
It was really taboo to be doing that back in those days."
Long after making a name for himself, Clark continued to live in the Crest Street house that he grew up in. His
parents lived next door. His admirers describe him as an ambassador for Chapel Hill, as a humble musician who represented
his hometown well.
"He's a legend," said Dick Baddour, athletics director at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete.
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CHAPEL HILL -- Douglas P. Clark, best known as leader of Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts,
the band he founded and fronted for almost half a century, died Monday. He was 66.
"He was a generous person," said older brother John Clark. "He was my best friend, and I can remember
a lot of good things about him."
Family and friends gathered at Clark’s Crest Street home Monday. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
But one thing’s for sure: The band will continue.
"We plan to keep on. He wanted us to, and we’re going to keep on doing the best we can," John Clark said.
The band now has eight members, including John Clark and Doug Clark’s son, Montey Clark, who plays drums.
They’ve recorded nine albums. And the song they’re most famous for -- "Hot Nuts," the one that goes,
"Hot nuts, hot nuts, get ’em from the peanut man" -- remains their signature.
Those lyrics, and other songs the band sang, were a bit risqué, Mr. Clark conceded. But while the band could
heat up the dance floor, its leader was also known for his big heart and community spirit.
"Doug has always tried to help everyone he could help in town," Eva Caldwell said at a big birthday party
for Mr. Clark last year.
At that party, with bands playing from the front porch of his Crest Street home, Mr. Clark had greeted friends
with handshakes and a whispered something that was usually followed by a big belly laugh.
Folks had come for miles -- and even other states -- to celebrate.
"He’s a fellow that I would consider a friend to everybody," Eddie Guthrie, who grew up in Chapel Hill
and was living in Tennessee, said at the time.
Mr. Clark formed his first band, The Tops, in 1955 with fellow students from Lincoln High School. After a year,
the group broke up and Mr. Clark started the Doug Clark Combo, which became the Hot Nuts.
When Mr. Clark first approached his vocational teacher R.D. Smith about his idea to start a band in his junior
year, his teacher had encouraged him, knowing that Mr. Clark, the school’s
drum major, knew music.
"I said, ‘If that’s what you want to do for the rest of your life, be the best you can be.’ He stuck to it.
He made a success out of it," Mr. Smith said at Mr. Clark’s 65th birthday on June 17 last year.
And, Mr. Clark stuck to it. He and his band traveled all over the East Coast playing at parties, fraternities,
sororities and nightclubs and continued to do so into the 21st century.
Last year, the group was inducted into the South Carolina R&B Beach Music Hall of Fame alongside Smokey Robinson,
Otis Redding, Jerry Butler, Marvin Gaye, Jac kie Wilson, The
Coasters and others.
As for their style, Mr. Clark and his brother, John, told Bruce Eagan, a columnist for the Chapel Hill Herald:
"We just had a little gimmick that worked good for us. "We’re known for
[risqué]-type music, but we get so many jobs now with weddings, deb balls, they tell us they don’t want
[those songs] because of grandma and grandpa.
"But as soon as grandma and grandpa [come up to us], they say, ‘Look, will y’all do one song ...’
Although the band had about 80 different members over the years, the two brothers held it together, with Doug playing
drums and John in recent years working as manager, although he still joined the band onstage during the finale.
The Clark brothers never liked the word "retirement."
"We try to stay away from that word," John Clark said two years ago. "Every time we play a job,
some girl comes up and says, ‘I want you to play at my wedding.’"
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