Starr was born Charles Edwin Hatcher in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1942. He and his cousins (soul singers Roger and Willie Hatcher) moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where they were raised.In 1957, Starr formed a doo-wop group, The Future Tones, and began his singing career.
The song which began his career was "Agent Double'O'Soul" (1965), a reference to the James Bond films popular at the time. Other early hits included "Headline News", "Back Street", a cover of The Miracles "Way Over There", and "S.O.S. (Stop Her On Sight)". He recorded more soul music for the next three years before having an international hit in "25 Miles" (1968), which peaked at #6 in the United States the following year.
The biggest hit of his career, which cemented his reputation, was the Vietnam War protest song "War" (1970). Starr's intense vocals transformed a Temptations album track into a #1 chart success, which spent three weeks in the top position on the U.S. Billboard charts, an anthem for the antiwar movement and a cultural milestone that continues to resound a generation later in movie soundtracks and hip hop music samples. It sold over three million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
"War" appeared on both Starr's War and Peace album and its follow-up, Involved. Involved also featured another song of similar construction titled "Stop the War Now", which was a minor hit in its own right.
Moving to England in 1973, Starr continued to record, most notably the song "Hell
Up in Harlem" for the 1974 film Hell Up in Harlem, which was the sequel to Black Caesar, an earlier hit with a soundtrack by James Brown. In 1979, Starr reappeared on the charts with a pair of disco hits, "Contact" and "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio". "(Eye-To-Eye) Contact" was the more successful of the two, peaking at #65 on the U.S. pop charts, #13 on the R&B chart, #1 on the dance chart, and #6 on the UK Singles Chart. By now he had joined the well-established disco boom, and had further singles on 20th Century Records. Over the years he released tracks on many labels, including Avatar, Calibre, 10 Records, Motown (a return to his former label for a 1989 remix of "25 Miles"), Streetwave and Hippodrome.
Starr remained a hero on England's Northern Soul circuit and continued living in England for the remainder of his life.
On Wednesday, April 2, 2003, at the age of 61, Starr suffered a heart attack and died while taking a bath at his home in Bramcote near Nottingham.
War" is a soul song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for the Motown label in 1969. Whitfield first produced the song — a blatant anti-Vietnam War protest — with The Temptations as the original vocalists. After Motown began receiving repeated requests to release "War" as a single, Whitfield re-recorded the song with Edwin Starr as the vocalist, deciding to withhold the Temptations' version so as not to alienate their more conservative fans.
Starr's version of "War" was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970, and is not only the most successful and well-known record of his career, but is also one of the most popular protest songs ever recorded. Its power was reasserted when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band took their rendition into the U.S. Top 10 in 1986. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the song was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.
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