#1 Record (Remastered 2024)

The underdog mythos of Big Star is wrapped up in record-label woes, internal dysfunction, and untimely tragedy. But on the Memphis band’s 1972 debut, we hear them as they initially saw themselves: as the young, hungry, wide-eyed Anglophiles fueled by dreams of storming the top of the pops. As rock veered toward prog’s intricacies and heavy metal’s bulldozing riffage, Big Star—much to their commercial detriment—clung to pre-psychedelic mid-’60s fundamentals, which included the melodic grace of Rubber Soul-era Beatles, the swoon-inducing harmonies of The Byrds, and the adrenalized rush of The Who. And at this early stage, the band boasted its very own Lennon/McCartney-esque tandem of distinct yet complementary voices, with Chris Bell’s excitable coo buffing the grittier edges of Alex Chilton (once the frontman of The Box Tops).
On #1 Record, the band are so drunk on their potential, they make even the most bitter songs sound carefree: Bell’s “Feel” and “Don’t Lie to Me” are steeped in post-breakup acrimony, but they’re delivered with all the hormonal energy of screaming kids rushing into a concert venue. And “In the Street” so perfectly captures both the excitement and ennui of cruising for teenage kicks that it later became the theme song (via Cheap Trick’s cover version) to ‘90s sitcom That ‘70s Show. But Chilton counterbalances Bell’s unbridled addresses with more sobering portraits of youth, like the eternally aching “Thirteen,” which distills the flowering of a brief teen romance into a campfire serenade for the ages. #1 Record would be Bell’s only album with Big Star before embarking on a solo career (sadly curtailed by his 1978 death), and the record’s poor sales would lend its aspirational title a cruelly ironic tinge. But for the ever-expanding cult of power-pop bands and indie-rock artists who tuned into its singular fusion of ecstatic melody and humbling melancholy, #1 Record is an all-time chart-topper.