From teenage soul shouter on 'The Letter' to power-pop cult hero with Big Star, Alex Chilton lived rock's whole history in one restless career.
MOODS · cult hero · power pop · raw and unpolished · restless reinvention · underground legend
BIOGRAPHY
Alex Chilton was born December 28, 1950, in Memphis, Tennessee, and died March 17, 2010, in New Orleans. He began performing at 15, joining the group that became the Box Tops, and sang lead on their 1966 smash 'The Letter,' the biggest hit single ever recorded in Memphis.
In the 1970s he formed Big Star, whose British-influenced power pop went commercially unnoticed but became hugely influential. He later released idiosyncratic solo work, including 1979's Like Flies on Sherbert and 1987's High Priest, produced the Cramps' debut single, battled alcoholism, and settled in New Orleans, working odd jobs before returning to music and eventually reforming Big Star in 1993.
WHY THEY'RE COOL
Chilton is rock's quintessential cult hero: a teenage hitmaker who became the architect of a band, Big Star, that flopped commercially yet reshaped power pop for generations. His solo records were erratic and divisive, drawing both dismissal and later reappraisal, but his influence runs through bands like the Replacements, whose namechecking of Chilton helped rescue him from obscurity. Few artists moved so unpredictably between teen-pop stardom, underground legend, and defiantly lo-fi solo reinvention.
GEORGE'S PLAYS
George has played this artist 9 times.
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