Songfacts®:

• The first James Bond movie, Dr. No, hit theaters in 1962, with From Russia with Love following in 1963, Goldfinger in 1964, and Thunderball in 1965. The films, starring Sean Connery in the title role, were very popular and had a huge cultural impact. Edwin Starr piggybacked on them with his 1965 song "Agent Double-O-Soul," where instead of a spy like James Bond, who is Agent 007, he's a sophisticated cat that brings soul music to the masses. He doesn't have to go undercover!
• "Agent Double-O-Soul" was Edwin Starr's first single. The song was hit, going to #21 in the US and earning him appearances on shows like Shindig! and Hollywood a Go Go.
  
  He was born Charles Hatcher but started using the Edwin Starr name in the early '60s, unaware that there was a group called The Beatles in England with a drummer named Ringo Starr, and they were about to invade America.
• Edwin Starr was signed to a Detroit label called Ric-Tic Records when he released this song. A few years later, Ric-Tic went out of business and sold his contract to their much larger rival, Motown. Starr's first few singles there flopped, but in 1969 he scored with "Twenty-Five Miles," and in 1970 he had a #1 hit with "War." He ended up leaving Motown in the mid-'70s, and in 1983 he moved to the UK, where he performed until 2003, when he died of a heart attack at 61.
• Edwin Starr wrote "Agent Double-O-Soul" with Bill Sharpley, his main collaborator at Ric-Tic Records. They also teamed on Starr's next single, "Back Street."