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| Edwin Starr |
| Born: 1-21-1942 Died: 4-2-2003 ....of a heart attack. |
| Born Charles Edwin Hatcher on January 21st, 1942 in Nashville, Tennessee, Edwin was raised and educated in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1962, after completing two years of military service in the U.S. and Germany he moved to Detroit, Michigan. By the middle of the decade he was among the artists on the up-and-coming RicTic label owned by Ed Wingate. Together they released one classic after another. Songs like "Agent 00 Soul," "S.O.S (Stop Her On Sight)" and "Headline News" laid the foundation for Edwins' continuing world-wide fame. Motown head Berry Gordy subsequently bought out Ric Tic and took over its artist roster, with Starr the crown jewel. Contract negotiations took some time, but Starr rebounded with his biggest hit yet in 1969's "25 Miles," which reached the Top Ten on both the pop and R&B charts. The follow-up, "I'm Still a Struggling Man," wasn't as successful, and Starr was something of a forgotten man for several months. When he returned to the studio, it was with producer Norman Whitfield, who'd been reinventing the Temptations as a psychedelic soul act. Whitfield had co-written a strident anti-war protest song, "War," for the Temps' "Psychedelic Shack" LP, and in spite of growing demand for a single release, Motown didn't want the group to take such an aggressive stance. Whitfield recut "War" with Starr, and the resulting version was arguably the most incendiary song Motown ever released. It zoomed to the top of the pop charts in 1970, and its chorus — powered by Starr's guttural delivery — remains a catch phrase even today. In the times that followed, more and more Motown artists such as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder directed their creative energy towards soul and social criticism. When Edwin parted company with Motown with the soundtrack "Hell Up In Harlem" - from which samples can be heard on Hip Hop records from Tone Loc to Ice T - the great Motown "Sound of Young America" was already drawing to a close. He recorded albums for small labels, including 1975's "Free To Be Myself" on Granite and 1977's "Afternoon Sunshine" on GTO, before finding a new home on 20th Century in 1978. Here he briefly reinvented himself as a disco singer, scoring his biggest hits in years with 1978's "Contact" and 1979's "H.A.P.P.Y. Radio"; his final release with the label came in 1980 with "Does She Have A Friend For Me." Starr moved to the U.K. during the 1980's, recording a Marvin Gaye tribute album for Streetwave and a handful of singles for Hippodrome over 1985-1986. His participation in the Ferry Aid charity project led to a deal with Virgin and a session with the hot production team of Stock, Aitken & Waterman, but he didn't take to their high-tech dance-pop style and instead moved to Ian Levine's Motown revival label Motorcity from 1989-1991. Later he guested on dance remakes of his past hits by Utah Saints ("Funky Music") and Three Amigos ("25 Miles"), but otherwise recorded little until his death in 2003. |
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