[3] Born in Nashville and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, he later lived in Detroit while singing for Ric-Tic and Motown Records.

[2][5][4] The song that launched his career was "Agent Double-O-Soul" (1965), a reference to the James Bond films, already popular at the time.

At Motown he recorded a string of singles before enjoying international success with "Twenty-Five Miles", which he co-wrote with producers Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua.

Many of Starr's Ric-Tic songs (subsequently owned by Motown) like "Back Street" and "Headline News" became favored northern soul classics.

[1] Starr's intense vocals transformed a Temptations album track into a number one chart success, which spent three weeks in the top position on the U.S.

Billboard charts, an anthem for the antiwar movement and a cultural milestone that continues to resound in movie soundtracks and hip hop music samples.

Over the years, he released tracks on a variety of labels, including Avatar, Calibre, 10 Records, Motown (a return to his former label for a 1989 remix of "25 Miles"), Streetwave (where he recorded 1984's "Marvin", a tribute to Marvin Gaye) and Hippodrome (a division of Peter Stringfellow's Hippodrome nightclub).

Despite garnering the attention of many in the soul and dance clubs, it fell short of becoming a major hit (managing number 56 on the UK Chart).

Later that year, Starr teamed up with the Stock, Aitken and Waterman (SAW) production company for the club hit, "Whatever Makes Our Love Grow".

In 1989, Starr also joined Ian Levine's Motorcity Records, releasing six singles and the album Where Is the Sound, as well as co-writing several songs for other artists on the label.

Starr resurfaced briefly in 2000 to team up with the UK band Utah Saints to record a new version of "Funky Music Sho' 'Nuff Turns Me On".

In 1995, Starr featured in Blue Juice, a 1995 British drama film as a soul singer named Ossie Sands.

[12] In late 2002, Edwin Starr appeared with many R&B stars on the "Rhythm, Love, and Soul" edition of the PBS series American Soundtrack.

[2] Edwin Starr was inducted into the inaugural class of the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame at Cleveland State University in August 2013.