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This article is about the Edwin Starr song. For the System of a Down song, see War (System of a Down single). For the Bob Marley song, see War (Bob Marley song). "War" is a soul song written by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong for the Motown label in 1969. Whitfield 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.
Temptations version and release debate The Temptations' version of "War", featuring Paul Williams and Dennis Edwards on lead vocals, was much less intense than the hit version more familiar today. Williams and Edwards deliver the song's anti-war, pro-peace message over a stripped-down instrumental track, with bass singer Melvin Franklin chanting a repeated boot camp-like "hup, two, three, four" in the background during the verses. The song was included as a track on the March 1970 Psychedelic Shack album, which featured the title track as its only single. The track's direct message, summarized by its chorus ("War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!"), struck a nerve with the American public, many of whom protested the war in Vietnam. Fans from across the nation, many of them college students and other young people, sent letters to Motown requesting the release of "War" as a single. The label didn't want to risk the image of its most popular male group, and the Temptations themselves were also apprehensive about releasing such a potentially controversial song as a single. The label decided to withhold "War"'s release as a single, a decision that Whitfield fought until the label came up with a compromise: "War" would be released, but it would have to be re-recorded with a different act. Edwin Starr version Edwin Starr, who had become a Motown artist in 1968 after his former label, Ric-Tic, was purchased by Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr., became "War's" new vocalist. Considered among Motown's "second-string" acts, Starr had only one major hit, 1968's number-six hit "Twenty-Five Miles", to his name by this time. He heard about the conflict surrounding the debate of whether or not to release "War," and volunteered to re-record it. Whitfield re-created the song to match Starr's James Brown-influenced soul shout: the single version of "War" was dramatic and intense, depicting the general anger and distaste the antiwar movement felt towards the war in Vietnam. Unlike the Temptations' original, Starr's "War" was a full-scale Whitfield production, with prominent electric guitar lines, clavinets, a heavily syncopated rhythm accented by a horn section, and with Whitfield's new act The Undisputed Truth on backing vocals. Upon its release in June 1970, Starr's "War" became a runaway hit, and held the number-one position on the Billboard Pop Singles chart for three weeks, in August and September 1970. It replaced "Make It With You" by Bread, and was replaced by another Motown single, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Diana Ross. Notable as the most successful protest song to become a pop hit, "War" became Edwin Starr's signature song. Rather than hinder his career (as it might have done for the Temptations), "War" buoyed Starr's career, and he adopted the image of an outspoken liberal orator for many of his other early-1970s releases, including the similarly-themed "Stop the War Now" from 1971. It and another 1971 single, "Funky Music Sho Nuff Turns Me On," continued Starr's string of Whitfield-produced psychedelic soul hits. After 1971, Starr's career began to falter, and, citing Motown's reliance on formulas, he departed the label in the mid-1970s. The Edwin Starr version has been heavily sampled in hip hop music, and is used as a running gag in the 1998 Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker comedy film Rush Hour. It is also referenced in a subtle joke in a Star Trek: Deep Space 9 episode, when, after a customer says a particular conflict is ruining their business, Quark (Armin Shimerman) deadpans "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing, you ask me." In 1999, Edwin Starr's "War" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The song was also mentioned in the 1994 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld entitled "The Marine Biologist"; in the episode, Jerry jokingly tells Elaine that Leo Tolstoy originally wanted the name of his novel War and Peace to be War (What Is It Good For). Although the song was written more than thirty years ago, its lyrics remains relevant because of criticisms of the recent Gulf and Iraq Wars among sectors of the American public. Cover versions Sample Edwin Starr version Temptations version | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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