Big Star, arguably one of America’s great power pop bands, will have a new Best Of as part of the roll-out for the Stax 60th Anniversary.
Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel formed Big Star in Memphis in 1971. By the second album ‘Radio City’ they were down to the threesome of Chilton, Hummel and Stephens and by album three album ‘Third’ it was just Chilton and Stephens.
While the Big Star innings was short, the influence was big. Without Big Star there may never have been a R.E.M. Peter Buck was once quoted as saying “we’ve sort of flirted with greatness, but we’ve yet to make a record as good as Revolver or Highway 61 Revisited or Exile on Main Street or Big Star’s Third”.
Big Star reformed in 2007 for a show in San Francisco and played once again in the USA in 2008 and 2009 as well as a show in London that same year as well.
2010 was shaping up as the comeback year. The band was scheduled to perform at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin in 2010 but the night before the showcase singer Alex Chilton suffered a heart attack and died in New Orleans. The show went ahead as a tribute show with R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Evan Dando and M. Ward joining the founding members as guests.
Best of Big Star is part of a wide-ranging, year-long initiative celebrating Stax Records’ 60th anniversary. The cross-label collaboration between Concord Music Group and Rhino Entertainment will highlight the hits, deep cuts and rare tracks from the Memphis label’s heyday of the ’60s and ’70s.
The track list:
• In the Street (single mix) (from #1 Record, 1972)
• Don’t Lie to Me (single version) (from #1 Record, 1972)
• September Gurls (single version) (from Radio City, 1974)
• Thirteen (from #1 Record, 1972)
• Jesus Christ (single edit) (from Third, 1978)
• I’m in Love With a Girl from Radio City, 1974)
• O My Soul (single edit) (from Radio City, 1974)
• Feel (from #1 Record, 1972)
• When My Baby’s Beside Me (from #1 Record, 1972)
• Take Care (from Third, 1978)
• Life Is White (from Radio City, 1974)
• Watch the Sunrise (single version) (from #1 Record, 1972)
• The Ballad of El Goodo (from #1 Record, 1972)
• Nightime (from Third, 1978)
• Back of a Car (from Radio City, 1974)
• Thank You Friends (from Third, 1978)
