By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 10:09 am:

WILL , ROGER, THE SADLY MISSED EDWIN STARR (Charles Hatcher)

By Scratcher (65.132.79.95) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 12:18 pm:

Will and Roger maybe brothers but they are no relation to Edwin Starr. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 02:01 pm:

They are related to Edwin. The details escape me at this moment.

I remember a phone call I had with Roger in the late 70's or early 80's where we dwelled on the relation aspect. He was living in Cleveland at the time.

Over the many years of reading soul magazines, one picks up many facts but Mr. Alzheimer is messing with my head.

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 02:16 pm:

I bet they are cousins. Can't swear but 99.999% sure.

By Scratcher (65.132.79.95) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 02:42 pm:

I doubt it, Soulpuss. I think Roger started the rumor.

By Eli (151.197.37.204) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 03:05 pm:

There was once a Mayor Hatcher of Detroit.

Could it be??

By Scratcher (65.132.79.95) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 03:13 pm:

SoulPuss check Roger Hatcher's songs on B.M.I. he has thousands logged in their database, of which I've only heard of three or four. I haven't checked his contributions in a while but if he's still around I'm sure he has some new ones cleared with B.M.I. about Bin Laden, Sadam Hussein and the West Nile Virus disease.

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 03:24 pm:

Hey Bobby: I think that Mayor Hatcher was the overseer of Gary, Indiana. Is Carl Paruolo still around. I note that he and LeBaron mixed some of the Sam Dees for Atlantic in the early 70's. Did you play on any of Sam's cuts?

By acooolcat (210.200.105.226) on Saturday, April 05, 2003 - 11:14 pm:

Will and Roger were brothers, Roger passed away about 2 years ago. I met Will in Detroit last year and he told me that they were not related to Charles Hatcher (Edwin Starr). I think that Roger once said that they were all related - for reasons unknown.
Graham

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Sunday, April 06, 2003 - 12:15 am:

Hey Graham: Thanks for the info. I am sad to hear about Rogers passing. I love his ballad cuts. I guess Roger likes to "pull a leg".

By RD (63.188.33.33) on Sunday, April 06, 2003 - 08:47 am:

Soulpuss, I knew Roger briefly, he lived in Cleveland for awhile and started a one record record label here call Superbad. I also knew Charles Hatcher and his brother Terry who attended the same college I did. I asked Terry was Roger related to them after reading a write up about him in a magazine and he had never heard of the guy. So Scratch and Graham are right. That's one on them stories that gets passed around so much that people believe it's true. I call them Soul Music Myths.

Roger tried to contact me before he died, but he tried through a third party who didn't give me the phone number of the motel he was staying at in California until after Rog had left leaving no forwarding info. He seem at that point to just be drifting. He wasn't so much pulling leg as much as he was trying to get any edge he could to get paid.

He wrote songs constantly and immediately sent the clearance sheets to B.M.I. for logging purposes. He would have even more songs logged if he was still alive and knew that you can log songs with B.M.I. by computer now.

It would be interesting to find out who controls his vast song and publishing catalog since the majority of his work was self published.

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Sunday, April 06, 2003 - 09:20 am:

Thanks RD: Another coincident fact is that Roger, I believe must have spent some time in Nashville, where Edwin Starr was born. He cut several sides with Nashville based producer/arranger/writer, Bob Holmes. I swallowed Roger's line and self-corroborated in my mind that perhaps he was shacking up with Starr's relatives in Nashville.

I really dig that line in "We're gonna make it" where the song goes "...help the blind, help the blind...".

Do you recall where Roger hailed from originally?.

By RD (63.188.33.33) on Sunday, April 06, 2003 - 10:45 am:

SoulPuss, I retrack what I said about Roger Hatcher and Charles Hatcher definitely not being related because I really don't know. Just because Will Hatcher said they are not related and Terry, at the period in time I asked, hadn't heard of Roger Hatcher isn't proof of no relationship. I have cousins who I don't know about and who don't know me. Also, siblings know cousins I don't know and vice versa.

There are too many coincidences and x factors.

For one nobody knows how many brothers or uncles Charles Hatcher's father had. In addition, nobody who lived around the Hatcher's knew anything of a father ever being around. His mom worked in the old Central Market on 55th and Woodland--everybody knew her.

Come to find out years later (the '90s) his father did live in Cleveland and worked for Post Office as a supervisor. A lady I know who still works at the post office says Mr. Hatcher was her supervisor and always talked about her famous son; he would even bring in pictures. Most assumed he lived in Nashville and Mrs. Hatcher moved the family to C-Town to get away.

Now what is not known is whether he came to Cleveland with the family then split away, or requested a job transfer later. He retired from the post office some years ago and moved with a buddy to Arizona or somewhere in the SW.

Case in point, there was a guy who claimed to be a family member that nobody believed until a family-historian aunt ran it all down about how he was the son of some woman who was the daughter of our great grandfather (conceived outside of his marriage). So you never know is all I'm saying.

By Soulpuss (24.102.217.36) on Sunday, April 06, 2003 - 11:22 am:

Rd: I presume Starr still has relatives in Cleveland. Have you heard of the funeral plans.

Another coincidence, Roger also recorded in Detroit. I'm sure you already know this but I thought I would just mention it to tie everything together in this thread.

By RD (63.188.32.45) on Sunday, April 06, 2003 - 12:26 pm:

He only has a sister in Cleveland as far as immediate family. I was going to ask a contact in England if he heard anything about the funeral. Supposedly, he's still married to Annette Tucker, so she might have some say so. Annette is from Cleveland but lives in Detroit. But, he's also supposed to be a UK Citizen. He has a biological daughter or son (I've heard both) in California and an adopted son with Annette. His mother is buried in Cleveland and that might be a factor as where he will be laid to rest.

Just read an email a guy in England sent me that indicated that Charles' father was in the service, which probably accounts for why nobody knew him. He may have been a lifer who when retired took the post office job in Cleveland. By this time, his son's career was in full throttle and he had moved his mom from the Outwaithe Projects into her own home.

By Mark Speck (65.57.19.241) on Sunday, April 06, 2003 - 11:47 pm:

Roger Hatcher was probably based in Nashville at one time. He recorded a fantastic Northern soul tune for the Nashville-based Excello label, "Sweetest Girl in the World".

Not long afterward, Roger recorded one single for Volt.

Best,

Mark