Perhaps You Missed It: Big Star's #1 Record/Radio City

Another weekly post that I would like to start is what I will call the “Perhaps You Missed It…” post. This is where I will feature a release from the past that should have been huge but for whatever reason, didn’t quite make much of an impression at the time. This week I’m starting with the highly influential Big Star. Talk about wrong place, wrong time. If they had come out in the mid-60’s or the mid-90’s, I’m sure more people would have heard of them. However, their first album, ironically titled #1 Record, was released in 1972. With progressive rock on the FM, and mellow singer-songwriter artists on the AM, people were simply not interested in jangly Byrds-esque pop music. Add to that, very limited support and promotion from their record company (big surprise) and you’ve got a band that was destined to sink deep under the radar of popularity. But Big Star has written some of the greatest pop songs of all time in my opinion and this is showcased heavily on their first two albums, which can be easily found on one CD, aptly entitled #1 Record/Radio City.

No doubt you’ve heard some of these songs before covered by other artists. Elliott Smith, Wilco and Mary Lou Lord have all done beautiful versions of “Thirteen.” “The Ballad Of El Goodo” was covered on the Empire Records soundtrack by Evan Dando. The Bangles did a cool version of “September Gurls” which gets my vote for being the greatest pop song ever written. And probably the most popular cover, “In The Street” can be heard by Cheap Trick as the theme song to “That 70’s Show.” Altogether now: “Hangin’ out! Down the street…” Their influence can also be heard all over the music of early R.E.M., The Replacements, and, most notably Teenage Fanclub. I won’t go over the entire history of the band since it’s been documented all over the place in great detail, but if you haven’t yet heard this masterpiece of an album, please do so. Recently, Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens have reformed the band with a couple members of The Posies. They released a new CD a couple of years ago and they play the occasional show. But nothing compares to those first two albums when it comes to pure jangle pop perfection.

Downloads:
September Gurls mp3
Thirteen mp3

You can purchase Big Star’s #1 Record/Radio City here.