Who recorded it first

War

Not an Edwin Starr original — The Temptations cut it first, in 1970 on Gordy

Edwin Starr’s thunderous single is so total a performance that it reads as the song’s starting point. It isn’t. Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong wrote “War” and Whitfield cut it first with The Temptations, who released it in March 1970 as an album track on Psychedelic Shack ↗ (Gordy GS 947). Motown declined to issue it as a Temptations single — it did not want to risk the image of its biggest male group on an anti-Vietnam record — so Whitfield re-recorded it with Starr, whose June 1970 Gordy single went to No. 1.

The record

Who recorded it first

First recording
The Temptations, “War”
First release
Psychedelic Shack, Gordy GS 947, 6 March 1970
Writers
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Famous version
Edwin Starr, Gordy 7101, 10 June 1970 — No. 1 Billboard Hot 100

Released As an album track, not a single — side two of The Temptations’ Psychedelic Shack, released 6 March 1970 on Gordy (GS 947), produced by Norman Whitfield and recorded at Hitsville U.S.A., Detroit, between November 1969 and February 1970.

Charted Did not chart — Motown declined to release it as a single, so it had no chart life of its own. The parent album reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on the US R&B albums chart.

Hear The Temptations’ original 1970 album recording of “War” from Psychedelic Shack. www.youtube.com · Auto-generated distributor upload on the official “The Temptations - Topic” channel; the description reads “Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group” with album Psychedelic Shack and ℗ 1970 UMG Recordings, Inc. Runtime is 192 seconds (3:12), matching the MusicBrainz recording length of 191,666 ms — so this is the 1970 cut, not a later re-recording.

The paper trail

The album article confirms the date, label and catalogue number of the first release: Psychedelic Shack, Gordy GS 947, 6 March 1970 ↗.

The song article states that Motown declined to issue the Temptations’ recording as a single and that Whitfield re-recorded it with Edwin Starr, whose 10 June 1970 Gordy single topped the Hot 100: “War” ↗.

The original recording is catalogued with a first release date of March 1970 and a length of 3:12: MusicBrainz recording ↗.

“War” on Wikipedia — both recordings in one article
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Fact-check

What people get wrong

“War” is so bound up with one voice that the record it came from has almost disappeared. Here is the order of events.

The beliefPopular credit

Edwin Starr

Starr’s Gordy single, released 10 June 1970, spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is treated as the song’s point of origin.

The originalRecorded first

The Temptations

Recorded with Norman Whitfield at Hitsville U.S.A. and released 6 March 1970 as an album track on Psychedelic Shack (Gordy GS 947), three months before the Starr single.

The writersComposition

Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong

The Motown team wrote the song in 1969; Whitfield produced both recordings, which is why the two versions are relatives rather than a cover in the usual sense.

Why the switchLabel decision

Motown

Motown refused to release the Temptations’ version as a single, unwilling to risk the image of its most popular male group on an anti-Vietnam record.

First recorded by The Temptations, released March 1970 on Gordy; the famous version is Edwin Starr’s Gordy single of June 1970.

Context

Why the cover swallowed the original

The unusual thing here is that the “cover” and the original share a producer, a studio and a writing team. Norman Whitfield cut “War” with The Temptations for Psychedelic Shack ↗, released 6 March 1970 on Gordy. Listeners wrote in asking Motown to pull it as a single. Motown said no: an explicit anti-Vietnam record risked the image of its most bankable male group, and the group had reservations of its own.

So Whitfield took the song to Edwin Starr, a Motown second-stringer with far less to lose, re-recorded it at Hitsville U.S.A. on 15 May 1970, and Gordy issued it as a single on 10 June. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks that summer and finished the year as Billboard’s No. 5 song. An album cut that nobody could buy on a 45 was never going to out-run that.

The chronology
  • 1969 — Whitfield and Strong write “War.”
  • November 1969 – February 1970 — The Temptations record Psychedelic Shack at Hitsville U.S.A., Detroit, with Whitfield producing.
  • 6 March 1970 — Psychedelic Shack is released on Gordy (GS 947), carrying the first recording of “War” as an album track.
  • Motown receives requests to release it as a single and declines, unwilling to put an anti-war record out under the Temptations’ name.
  • 15 May 1970 — Whitfield re-records the song with Edwin Starr at Hitsville U.S.A.
  • 10 June 1970 — Starr’s version is issued as a single on Gordy (7101), backed with “He Who Picks a Rose.”
  • August–September 1970 — the Starr single spends three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The label liked the song. It just did not want the Temptations’ name on it.

The original recording artist

The Temptations

Formed 1961, Detroit · Motown/Gordy · 1970 lineup: Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Dennis Edwards, Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams

Motown’s flagship male group, formed in Detroit in 1961 and famous for close harmony and drilled choreography. By the end of the 1960s producer Norman Whitfield had steered them out of ballads and into psychedelic soul, and Psychedelic Shack ↗ in March 1970 was that turn at full stretch. Their “War” sits on side two of that album, with Paul Williams and Dennis Edwards on lead and Melvin Franklin anchoring the chants. It was never released as their single.

Popularly credited as the original

Edwin Starr

1942–2003 · American soul singer · born Charles Edwin Hatcher, Nashville

Starr came up on Detroit’s Ric-Tic label with “Agent Double-O-Soul” in 1965 and moved to Motown when Berry Gordy bought Ric-Tic, scoring with “Twenty-Five Miles” in 1969. When Motown wanted “War” on a single but not under the Temptations’ name, Starr volunteered. His version, cut at Hitsville U.S.A. in May 1970, is one of the most ferocious vocal performances Motown ever released — the record is genuinely his, and the only error is chronological. It became the defining record of his career; he later lived and worked in England until his death in 2003.

The songwriters

Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong

Whitfield 1940–2008 · Strong 1941–2023 · Motown songwriting and production team

Whitfield produced and Strong wrote lyrics on a run of Motown records that includes “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Just My Imagination” and “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” Strong had sung Motown’s first real hit, “Money (That’s What I Want),” in 1960 before moving behind the scenes. The pair wrote “War” in 1969 and Whitfield produced both recordings of it — the Temptations’ album version and Starr’s single. They entered the Songwriters Hall of Fame together in 2004.