Big Star

Big Star was an American power pop band of the early 1970s.

Band History

The band was founded in 1971 in Memphis, Tennessee by Chris Bell ( guitar, vocals ), Andy Hummel ( bass), Jody Stephens (drums ) and Alex Chilton (guitar, vocals).

The debut album # 1 Record was released in 1972. Since it was commercially unsuccessful, Bell left the group in the same year to begin a solo career. He died in 1978 in a car accident. The second album Radio City, 1974 was also sold very little. Hummel left the band and was replaced by John Lightman. Chilton and Stephens recorded a few songs for a double album with producer Jim Dickinson. It had a few guest musicians, including Steve Cropper, with among them. After the recordings, the band broke up. The album was four years later published under the title 3RD and republished several times from 1992 under the title Third / Sister Lovers.

Only later, the band was recognized in the professional world. The three albums Radio City, # 1 Record and Third were set by the music magazine Rolling Stone on the list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Chilton and Stephens met in 1993 with Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow at the University of Missouri- Columbia for a reunion and went on tour. Some recordings were released.

Early 2004, met the band to record new songs. In September 2005, published in Space. In 2006, the song I'm In Love With A Girl was used for the TV advertising of the Heineken brewery.

In March 2010, Alex Chilton died in July of the same year Andy Hummel.

Influence

Big Star exercised some influence on numerous indie and alternative bands of the 1990s and 2000s. In particular, the Scottish band Teenage Fanclub has called Big Star again and again as a formative influence. Other artists who have covered songs by Big Star, are Elliott Smith, Garbage, Erlend Øye and Håkan Hellström ( Thirteen ), Evan Dando, the Counting Crows and Vanessa Paradis ( The Ballad of El Goodo ), Jeff Buckley and Beck ( Kangaroo ), The Bangles and The Replacements ( September Gurls ) and Nada Surf ( Blue Moon ). On May 23, 2006 saw Big Star, Small World, a tribute album, in which, among other things, Gin Blossoms, Wilco, Afghan Whigs and Whiskeytown participated.

Discography

• # 1 Record ( Ardent / Stax, 1972)
• Radio City ( Ardent / Stax, 1974)
• Third / Sister Lovers (PVC, 1978)
• Live ( Rykodisc, 1992)
• Nobody Can Dance (Norton, 1999)
• In Space ( Rykodisc, 2005)
• Keep An Eye On The Sky ( Rhino Records, 2009)