In 1989, Edwin was seen on stage in an appearance of The Cookie Crew's mimed performance on Top Of The Pops - the BBC chart show in the UK, Edwin also miming repeatedly to the lyric 'I got to keep on' which was sampled from 'Twenty-Five Miles' in the #17 hit 'Got To Keep On' of April that year.Ī shortened remix of this version was used as the theme song for NFL Network's coverage of the 2011 NFL scouting combine. Starr's version was popular on the UK's Northern soul scene. His pair of 1979 disco singles would later outdo the song's performance on the UK Charts, as ' Contact' and 'H.A.P.P.Y. 'Twenty-Five Miles' proved to be Starr's second-biggest US hit, ranking below his signature song (and #1 smash) ' War'. The song was a huge hit in the US, making the Top Ten on both the Pop Charts (#6) and R&B Charts (#6) and peaked at #36 on the UK Singles Chart. It was Starr's first success following his move from Ric-Tic Records to Motown (as Motown bought out Ric-Tic and all its artists). Essentially the same theme also appeared in late 1959 in the approaching miles section of the lyrics of Jimmie Rodgers' 'Tucumcari'.

The song was considered sufficiently similar to '32 Miles out of Waycross' by Hoagy Lands (also recorded as 'Mojo Mama' by both Wilson Pickett and Don Varner), written by Bert Berns and Jerry Wexler, that Berns and Wexler were eventually given co-writing credits. Starr lived in a number of locations in the UK before sadly dying at just 61 in April 2003 - he was buried in Nottingham.' Twenty-Five Miles' is a song written by Johnny Bristol, Harvey Fuqua, and Edwin Starr for Starr's second album, 25 Miles (1969). Motown had re-released a number of Starr's early recordings for Ric-Tic - to which the company owned the rights - because they were popular on the UK Northern Soul circuit. Starr continued to record with Motown into the 1970s, and later became one of a number of US soul stars who decided to move to the UK. This meant that Starr became a Motown act overnight, and through no action on his part. His solution was costly but effective - he bought out and absorbed both Golden World and Ric-Tic, acquiring their acts and recording facilities in one stroke. Much to Gordy's frustration, his studio musicians would frequently breach their contracts by visiting Golden World's studios and making recordings for them out of hours as a means of supplementing their income. Both this label and its associated company Golden World were competitors for Berry Gordy's rapidly growing Motown empire. Later, Starr moved to Detroit, Michigan and signed as a solo act with the small local label Ric-Tic. While the young Hatcher was born in one of the definitive centres of American music - Nashville, Tennessee - he mostly grew up in Ohio after his family moved there.

That Starr was able to record it in the first place was the product of some very specific and unusual circumstances rooted in his particular background and career trajectory.Įdwin Starr was born Charles Edwin Hatcher in 1942. There are many reasons to be thankful for 'War', one of the most wonderfully powerful anti-war songs ever made - but one of them is that without it, Edwin Starr might have languished in obscurity. The man himself died in 2003, but it's always a good time to delve into the discography of one of soul's more underrated stars.

But Edwin Starr himself is hardly a household name, and while soul fans will readily remember him as the performer of 'War', they won't neccesarily know a lot about him or about the rest of his career. Over 50 years later, Starr's version of 'War' is one of the most recognisable and popular recordings from the glory years of soul and funk - thanks in part to frequent airplay and its use in movies like Rush Hour (1998). The single also benefited from its driving, psychedelic soul soundscape overseen by producer Norman Whitfield, and from the enormously powerful and furious vocal by Starr. The stridently anti-war song chimed strongly with the public mood, as opposition to the Vietnam War was growing rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. It reached the #1 spot in both the US and Canada, and hit #3 on the UK singles chart. Released in June 1970, Edwin Starr's version of 'War' was a tremendous success.

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