Carol Lynn Townes is a soul singer from Warrenton, North Carolina. Hailing from a family of gospel singers, she made her debut singing gospel at age three.

In the early 1970's she moved to New York and joined an all male soul group called Fifth Avenue. The group consisted of prominent jingle singers. With Carol as lead singer, the group recorded the single Wheeler Dealer for Buddha Records, and followed with a full-length album on RCA in 1976.

It wasn't until nearly a decade later that Townes achieved commercial success. In 1982 she signed to Polydor as a solo artist where she recorded a remake of Alton McClain & Destiny's 99 1/2 for the Breakin' soundtrack in 1984. The song became a top-10 dance club hit and made the top 30 of the Billboard R&B charts. She then recorded Believe In The Beat for the follow-up movie Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, in which she appeared at the end, performing the song.

This led to her own solo album, Satisfaction Guaranteed.
She then recorded a second album, Try Me Out, released in 1988. This was followed by the 12 single What I Wouldn't Do on Easy Street in 1989, and a dance version of The Grass Roots' hit Midnight Confessions on Life Line in 1993.