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Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote War as a direct statement against the Vietnam War, and the Temptations first recorded it for the March 1970 album Psychedelic Shack. That version was restrained, with marching band drums, measured leads from Paul Williams and Dennis Edwards, and Melvin Franklin chanting a recruit-style cadence underneath. College students flooded Motown with letters demanding a single, but the label and the group feared alienating the Temptations’ conservative fans. Whitfield fought for a release, and the compromise was that another act would sing it: Edwin Starr, who had come to Motown when Berry Gordy bought Ric-Tic Records.

Whitfield rebuilt the track around Starr’s James Brown-style shouting, adding clavinet, heavy guitars, aggressive horns and backing vocals from the Originals and the Undisputed Truth. Released in June 1970, it spent three weeks at number one, unseating Bread’s Make It With You before Diana Ross’s Ain’t No Mountain High Enough replaced it. Later lives followed: Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s 1984 dance version, Bruce Springsteen’s 1985 live rock version, and a spot on Clear Channel’s 2001 list of songs stations were advised to avoid.

• Motown followed with Starr singles in the same vein, including Stop the War Now, and his career faltered by the mid-1970s.
• Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s version featured Chris Barrie impersonating Ronald Reagan and reading quotes from Hitler’s 1924 trial.
• Springsteen taped the lyrics to his arm, and his live recording from the Los Angeles Coliseum reached number 8 in 1986.
• Clear Channel’s post-9/11 memo listed 161 songs, with Starr’s War among them.
• A young Tony Blair once fronted a university band, Ugly Rumors, that covered the song, and a lookalike version charted in the UK in 2007.