Charles Edwin Hatcher, known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. In 1957, Hatcher formed a doo-wop group, the Future Tones, and began his singing career. However after just one single, he was called up for military service in the United States Army for three years, where he was posted to Europe, following the end of his service he decided to make music his career, and joined the musical group of Bill Doggett. Hatcher, adopted the name Edwin Starr at the suggestion of Doggett’s manager Don Briggs, and made his solo recording debut in 1965 for the Detroit record company Ric-Tic.
The song that launched his career was “Agent Double-O-Soul” (1965), a reference to the James Bond films, already popular at the time. Other early hits included “Headline News”, “Back Street”, and “Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.)”. While at Ric-Tic, he wrote the song, “Oh, How Happy”, a number 12 Billboard hit in 1966 for The Shades of Blue and sang lead for the Holidays on their number 12 R&B hit, “I’ll Love You Forever”. At Motown he recorded a string of singles before enjoying international success with “Twenty-Five Miles”, which he co-wrote with producers Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua. It peaked at number 6 in both the Hot 100 and R&B Charts in 1969.
It was when Motown’s Berry Gordy became frustrated with smaller labels like Ric-Tic stealing some of the success of his company that he bought out the label. Many of Starr’s Ric-Tic songs (subsequently owned by Motown) like “Back Street” and “Headline News” became favoured northern soul classics. His early Ric-Tic hit “Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.)”, was reissued in Britain (with “Headline News” as its b-side) in 1968, and it performed better than the original release on the UK Chart, surpassing the original number 35 and peaking at number 11. His 1970 song “Time” also helped to establish him as a prominent artist on the northern soul scene.
The biggest hit of Starr’s career, which cemented his reputation, was the Vietnam War Protest song “War” (1970). Starr’s intense.Starr’s intense vocals transformed a Temptations album track into a number one chart success, which spent three weeks in the top position on the U.S. Billboard charts, an anthem for the anti-war movement and a cultural milestone that continues to resound in movie soundtracks and hip hop music samples. It sold over three million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. “War” appeared on both of Starr’s War & Peace album and its follow-up, Involved, produced by Norman Whitfield.
Starr continued to record, most notably the song “Hell Up in Harlem” for the 1974 film of the same name. In 1979, Starr reappeared on the charts with a pair of disco hits, “(Eye to Eye) Contact” and “H.A.P.P.Y. Radio”. “Contact” was the more successful of the two, peaking at number 65 on the US pop chart, number 13 on the R&B chart, number 1 on the dance chart, and number 6 in the UK. “H.A.P.P.Y. Radio” was also a top ten hit in the UK, reaching number 9 on the chart in mid-1979. Starr remained a hero on England’s northern soul circuit and moved to England in 1983, continuing to live there for the remainder of his life.
