Edwin Starr Hell up

With productions and songs from Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell, Hell Up in Harlem is the scathing and soulful soundtrack of the motion picture starring Fred Williamson. This was Edwin Starr's last album for Motown, which probably accounts for the woeful lack of promotion. Two singles were released, "Hell Up in Harlem," the first, should have remained an album cut, as its appeal was limited, despite a solid vocal by Starr. The follow-up, however, "Big Papa," should have been a monster. Written by Freddie Perren, it has the same power, forcefulness, and drive of numbers that Norman Whitfield had produced for Rare Earth and the Temptations. The flips of both singles, "Don't It Feel Good to Be Free" and "Like We Used to Do," are mellower than the push sides. The bone picker, however, is "Easin' In," a great midtempo number with cool backing vocals, and a great reading from Starr; it has chart buster written all over it, yet Motown never released it as a single. Mind boggling, since Starr's final single for Gordy's empire, "Who's Right or Wrong," backed with "Lonely Rainy Days in San Diego," dropped six months after "Big Papa," but doesn't rate with "Easin'."

Edwin Starr was born Charles Hatcher in Nashville, TN, on January 21, 1942 (his cousin was deep soul singer and songwriter Roger Hatcher). He grew up in Cleveland and formed a doo wop quintet called the FutureTones while still in high school. They won numerous local talent competitions and even recorded a single for a small label, but Starr was drafted into the military in 1960, stalling the group's momentum. When he returned in 1962, he tried to get things going again, but to no avail; instead, he wound up joining Bill Doggett's group as a featured vocalist in 1963. Two years later, Starr wrote what he felt was a surefire hit in the spy-themed "Agent Double-O-Soul," and left Doggett's band to sign with Ric Tic Records and settle in Detroit. "Agent Double-O-Soul" hit the R&B Top Ten later in 1965, and just missed the pop Top 20.

Earlier work by Marvin also figures on Motown Funk Volume 2, including “Closing Jimmy’s.” This was part of the original score from Trouble Man, the 1972 so-called “blaxploitation” movie for which Gaye wrote and produced the soundtrack music. Motown Funk Volume 2 will be available exclusively through participating Record Store Day retailers as a 2LP set on colored vinyl. In addition to two tracks by Gaye, the artists featured include the Commodores, Stevie Wonder, Edwin Starr, Eddie Kendricks and the Undisputed Truth. The set’s compiler, Johnny Chandler, describes its contents as “funky soul, jazz, ’60s, ’70s and even some early ’80s ‘new’ funk courtesy of the Dazz Band’s ‘Let It Whip’.”

Here is the first-ever compilation dedicated to the distinctive and influential productions of Norman Whitfield. You’ll find all-time classics such as Marvin Gaye’s ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’, the Temptations’ ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ and Rose Royce’s ‘Love Don’t Live Here Anymore’, alongside lesser-known soul gems from the 70s. Compiled by Bob Stanley, who also put together the acclaimed, big-selling Thom Bell “Ready Or Not” set, it’s the perfect introduction to Whitfield’s work. Atmospheric, cinematic things like Rare Earth’s ‘Come With Me’ sit alongside floor-fillers such as David Ruffin’s wild ‘Me And Rock & Roll (Are Here To Stay)’.

Some Kent releases come together in a relatively short period of time, while others require a longer gestation period. This month, we're proud to bring you one that falls firmly into the latter category. It's been a fortnight short of two years since we first began work on a project that would attempt to tell a story-in-song of Black American participation in the Vietnam war, a project that has been in the works for the whole of that time. The original annotation plans fell through not once, but twice, both times at the last minute. Just as we thought everything was running smoothly, we had to revise our originally perceived track listing. (One of the tracks we'd licensed had suddenly become worth three times as much in its licensor's eyes as had already been agreed, due to the fact that "war sells records" - a new one on us, we must admit.) It often felt like this project was the place where catastrophe and calamity meet - but, finally, 100 weeks after it was first discussed, A SOLDIER'S SAD STORY is ready. As compiler and part-annotator, I could hardly be more pleased with the end result.

Part of the new wave of British two-LPs-on-one-CD Motown releases, these two albums, issued almost exactly two and a half years apart, bookend the early-'70s successes of the Temptations.