Big Star
Big Star formed in Memphis around Alex Chilton's ear for a hook and Chris Bell's Beatles obsession, cutting two albums of gorgeously melodic power pop that virtually nobody bought at the time. #1 Record and Radio City are now treated as sacred texts by generations of jangle-pop and alternative bands who discovered them years after the group had quietly fallen apart. Their commercial invisibility became, paradoxically, the whole foundation of their legend.
Every member of Big Star was struck by the Beatles' 1964 US tour at age thirteen, and Chilton wrote "Thirteen" as a direct, wistful memory of exactly that moment — the Beatles aren't a vague inspiration here, they're the song's actual subject.
listen forPlay the Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" next to Big Star's "Thirteen" — one is the sound of the obsession starting, the other is Chilton looking back at being a kid who caught it.
Chilton developed his interest in electric twelve-string guitar directly after meeting Roger McGuinn, and that chiming Byrds tone became one of the defining textures of Big Star's records.
listen forSet the Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" against Big Star's "September Gurls" — both ring with a bright, layered twelve-string figure that's practically doing the singing alongside the vocal.
Before Big Star, its members played in Memphis garage bands covering the Rolling Stones alongside the Kinks and the Who, and that rawer British Invasion swagger surfaces whenever Big Star's records get scrappier and less polished.
listen forCompare the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" with Big Star's "In the Street" — both ride a blunt, insistent riff and a shrug of teenage restlessness rather than the group's more polished pop moments.