533 Edwin Starr [1965] - Backstreet [Ric Tic RT 107]
| b/w: | Back Street Instrumental |
| Format: | 45 |
| Label: | Ric-Tic |
| Cat No: | RT-107 |
| Year: | 1965 |
| Value: | £10-£20 |
The late Charles Hatcher aka Edwin Starr with his second release on the legendary Detroit Ric-Tic label, later bought by Motown (the first being Agent Double-O-Soul RT-103). This is archetypal Northern Soul. It simply has everything, every ingredient that was required, Detroit and Motown connection, the beat, the vocals, the breaks. A dancefloor favourite and still sounds good today.
103 - Edwin Starr - Agent Double-O-Soul / Instrumental - 1965
107 - Edwin Starr - Backstreet / Instrumental - 1966
109 - Edwin Starr - I Have Faith In You / Stop Her On Sight - 1966
114 - Edwin Starr - Headline News / Harlem - 1966
118 - Edwin Starr - Girls Are Getting Prettier / It's My Turn Now - 1966
120 - Edwin Starr - My Kind Of Woman / You're My Mellow – 1966
Edwin Starr should need no introduction and there must be plenty of info on the web, so just enjoy one of his finest moments. The other killer track from him (for me) is 'Time' which will be featured in a future post.
I saw Edwin around 1975 at one of the US Air Force bases in Suffolk (can't remember now whether it was Lakenheath or Mildenhall (the latter I think)) and then again at St Ives all-nighter in 1976 and my copy of this record was autographed by him.
Owing to his popularity on these shores, Edwin moved over to the UK to live in the 70s and later joined up with Blackpool Mecca DJ turned record producer / label owner Ian Levine and wrote and recorded many tuens with Ian on his Motor City label.
Live in studio re-recording 'Back Street' in 1990 for Ian Levine's Motor City label.
This is what Ian wrote about 'The Man':
'This was originally Edwin's second release on the Ric-Tic label, and one of his all time beloved Northern Soul classics, and we recut it in the 1990s and filmed him doing it in my old studio in Chiswick. The late great Mister Charles Hatcher, more commonly known as Edwin Starr, was one of the greatest artists in the history of soul music. While we were doing Motorcity, I wrote over a hundred songs with him, and I find it so hard to accept that he's no longer with us, that sometimes I almost want to pick up the phone to him, and have to stop myself. Someone like Edwin was so full of life and vigour and vitality, that it's easy to think he'll always be around, and that much harder to accept that he truly is gone. But never, NEVER, forgotten. We released six singles of Edwin's on the Motorcity label, and recorded about fifty songs in the end, and it's one hundred percent true to say that he really cared very deeply about what we were trying to do with Motorcity, and indeed, was our greatest ambassador for it, ceaselessly championing it everywhere he went. A true gentleman and a true friend. This song was one of his earliest releases originally, back in 1965 on the legendary Ric-Tic label, from out of Detroit, which got absorbed by Motown, and this became a record that over the decades, people cared about very passionately.'
Check out Ian's You Tube channel for more great artists and info.
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