Alex Chilton

William Alexander Chilton (December 28, 1950 – March 17, 2010) was an American musician, best known as the lead singer of the rock bands the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was not matched by similar chart success in his later work with Big Star and in his subsequent solo career on independent record labels. However, he built a devoted following among indie and alternative musicians, and has been frequently cited as a seminal influence by influential rock artists and bands.

Chilton grew up in a musical family. His father, Sidney Chilton, was a jazz pianist and saxophonist who sold industrial lighting to support his family. A local band recruited the teenaged Chilton in 1966 to be their lead singer after learning of the popularity of his vocal performance at a talent show at Memphis's Central High School. This band was Ronnie and the Devilles, which was subsequently renamed the Box Tops. The group recorded with Chips Moman and producer/songwriter Dan Penn at American Sound Studio and Muscle Shoals's FAME Studios.

Chilton was 16 when his first professional recording, the Box Tops' song "The Letter", became a number-one international hit. The Box Tops went on to have several other major chart hits, including "Neon Rainbow" (1967), "Cry Like a Baby" (1968), "Choo Choo Train" (1968), "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March" (1969), and "Soul Deep" (1969). Aside from "The Letter", "Neon Rainbow", and "Soul Deep", all written by Wayne Carson, many of the group's songs were written by Penn, Moman, Spooner Oldham, and other top area songwriters, with Chilton occasionally contributing a song. He also contributed a Carson song, "If I Cry," which was recorded in 1968 by the Memphis group the Debuts, featuring Jimi Jamison (future Survivor lead singer) on vocals. By late 1969, only Chilton and guitarist Gary Talley remained from the original group, and newer additions replaced the members who had departed. The group decided to disband and pursue independent careers in February 1970.

After deciding against enrolling as a student at Memphis State University,^{[citation needed]} Chilton began performing as a solo artist, maintaining a working relationship with Penn for demos. During this period he began learning guitar by studying the styles of guitarists like Stax Records great Steve Cropper and Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys. Chilton began recording his own solo material in the fall of 1969 at Ardent Studios with local musicians including producer Terry Manning (who had worked with Chilton as an engineer on the Box Tops' recordings) and drummer Richard Rosebrough, and producing a few local blues-rock acts. His 1969–1970 recordings were released in the 1980s and 1990s on albums such as Lost Decade (New Rose Records), 1970 (Ardent Records), and Free Again: The "1970" Sessions" (Omnivore Recordings).

Chilton was considered as a replacement vocalist for Al Kooper in Blood, Sweat & Tears.

After a period in New York City, during which Chilton worked on his guitar technique and singing style. Biographer Holly George-Warren notes that a chance meeting with Roger McGuinn left a strong impression on Chilton's singing and playing. Chilton returned to Memphis in 1971 and co-founded the power pop group Big Star, with Chris Bell, recording at engineer John Fry's Ardent Studios. Chilton and Bell co-wrote "In the Street" for Big Star's first album #1 Record, a track later covered by Cheap Trick and used as the theme song of the sitcom That '70s Show.

The group's recordings met with little commercial success but established Chilton's reputation as a rock singer and songwriter; later alternative rock bands like R.E.M. and the Posies would praise the group as a major influence. During this period he also occasionally recorded with Rosebrough as a group they called the Dolby Fuckers; some of their studio experimentation was included on Big Star's album Radio City, including the recording of "Mod Lang". Rosebrough would occasionally work with Chilton on later recordings, including Big Star's album Third and Chilton's solo record Bach's Bottom.

Moving back to New York in 1977, Chilton performed as "Alex Chilton and the Cossacks" with a lineup that included Chris Stamey (later of the dB's) and Richard Lloyd of Television at venues like CBGB, releasing an influential solo single, "Bangkok" (with a cover of the Seeds' "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" as the B-side), in 1978. Influenced by the performers in New York's CBGB scene, Chilton's late-1970s recordings abandoned the multi-layered pop production of his Big Star albums and utilized a more minimalist punk and psychobilly-influenced performance style. His songs during this period were often recorded in one take and featured few overdubs. In New York, he met the members of the Cramps, a formative psychobilly group. After moving back to Memphis in April 1978, Chilton produced music by the Cramps that appeared on the group's Gravest Hits EP and Songs the Lord Taught Us LP.