THE BOX TOPS
 The
Box Tops' early beginnings were as a five man band from Memphis Tennessee called
"Ronnie and the DeVilles". The group consisted of Alex Chilton
(lead vocal, guitar) Bill Cunningham (bass, keyboards, background vocal)
John Evans (guitar, keyboards, background vocals) Danny Smythe (drums) and
Gary Talley (lead guitar, background vocal).
After playing at clubs in the
Memphis area, they were signed to record for Bell Records at Chips Moman's
"American" recording studio in Memphis, with producer Dan Penn.
They soon discovered that another band had already recorded under the
name, "The DeVilles" and before their first release, had changed
their name to "The Box Tops".
Their first effort, a song
called "The Letter" took off in 1967 and went all the way to
Billboard's number one, were it stayed for an entire month, eventually
selling over four million copies. The song was awarded Cashbox Magazine's
"Record Of The Year" and received two Grammy nominations,
"Best Contemporary Group Performance" and "Best Performance
By A Vocal Group", although they lost both to The Fifth Dimension.
The band's second release, "Neon Rainbow" did not sell well and
quickly faded from view.
A great deal of tension was
growing in the band itself because Bell Records insisted on using studio
musicians to back Alex Chilton's vocals during recording sessions. By
January 1968, John Evans and Danny Smythe returned to school and were
replaced by Rick Allen (from the Gentrys) and Tom Boggs (from the Board of
Directors).
January 1969 saw the release of
"Cry Like A Baby", which rose to number two in the U.S. and sold
over two million records. Once again though, The Box Tops could not follow
up one hit with another. The served up a series of singles that just
couldn't generate much chart action, including "Choo Choo
Train", "I Met Her In Church", "Sweet Cream Ladies,
Forward March" and "I Shall Be Released". From here, the
band recorded three more singles, the best remembered of which is
"Soul Deep", which was the group's final Top 40 entry.
Bill Cunningham left to return
to school in August 1969 and was replaced by Harold Cloud, but by February
1970, the Box Tops recording contract ran out and the group disbanded.
As for the song,"The
Letter", its come back twice since the Box Tops version. It was a top
twenty hit for a group called "The Arbours" in 1969, and a top
ten song for Joe Cocker in 1970.
 In 1971, Alex Chilton hooked up
with high school friend Chris Bell, a talented songwriter who shared
Chilton’s passion for mid-60s rock. When Chilton joined Bell's group,
the band changed its name from Ice Water to that of a local grocery store
chain that happened to be located across the street from their recording
studio. Big Star signed a deal with Ardent Records, a new label affiliated
with Ardent Studios in Memphis, and their debut album was released in
September 1972 to unanimous critical acclaim . Unfortunately, the second
album, "Big Star", while confirming the great talent of Alex and
his friends, sold disappointingly and the group's label refused to release
the bands third album. After many trials and tribulations, it did
eventually reach record stores by the end of the 70s, but it was too late
for Big Star. Completely disillusioned, Alex started to have severe
difficulties and disappeared from the music scene for a while.
In the late 1990s, TV's
"That 70s Show" used an Alex Chilton composition called
"Down the Street" as its theme song. As the new millennium
rolled around, Chilton and the four other original founding members of The
Box Tops reunited and recorded another album, as well as continuing to
tour.
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
The Letter/Neon Rainbow
(November, 1967) - US #82 Cry Like a Baby (April, 1968) - US #59
Non-Stop (July, 1968) Dimensions (September, 1969) - US #77 Tear Off!
(1998)
Singles
July 1967 "The Letter" "Happy Times" Mala 565 #1
#4 #1 #5 The Letter/Neon Rainbow October 1967 "Neon Rainbow"
"Everything I Am" Mala 580 #24 #30 #17 February 1968 "Cry
Like A Baby" "The Door You Closed To Me" Mala 593 #2 #46
#3 #15 Cry Like A Baby May 1968 "Choo Choo Train" "Fields
Of Clover" Mala 12005 #26 #96 #18 Non-Stop August 1968 "I Met
Her in Church" "People Gonna Talk" Mala 12017 #37 #32 #27
November 1968 "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March" "I See
Only Sunshine" Mala 12035 #28 #82 #16 Dimensions March 1969 "I
Shall Be Released" "I Must Be The Devil" Mala 12038 #67
#51 June 1969 "Soul Deep" "(The) Happy Song" Mala
12040 #18 #7 #9 #22 September 1969 "Turn On A Dream"
"Together" Mala 12042 #58 #29 Non-LP singles February 1970
"You Keep Tightening Up On Me" "Come On Honey" Bell
865 #92 #68 August 1970 "Let Me Go" "Got To Hold On To
You" Bell 923 March 1971 "King's Highway
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