"War" was originally recorded by The Temptations for their album Psychedelic Shack. Clearly an anti-war anthem, many people wanted Motown to release it as a single, but the label didn’t want to antagonize The Temptations’ more conservative fans, so they turned to one of their "second tier" artists, Edwin Starr, to record it. His cover was released in June of 1970 and by August had reached the #1 spot on the Hot 100, spending three weeks there. It also went to #1 in Canada and #3 in the UK. Billboard ranked it #5 on the year-end Hot 100, and Starr received a Grammy nomination for his performance.
This definitely takes me back in time. Amazing how some music can do that.
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All of it does, to some extent, I think. At least to me it does.
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Another great song choice.
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Thanks! I thought it fit the theme well.
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He put some backbone in it. The first time I heard this song was in the 80s with Springsteen’s version. I later heard Starr’s version and liked them both…Bruce doesn’t change it much from the way he did it.
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Starr’s version was really popular among the girls in my neighborhood, who would play it over and over and dance to it. About drove us nuts, but it was still a great song.
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If you are forced to hear a song over and over…this is a good one.
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