Born December 28, 1950, in Memphis, William Alexander Chilton was only 16 when he rose to the top of the American singles chart as lead singer of the Box Tops. Their hit “The Letterâ€â€”one of the shortest number one records ever at under two minutes—featured Chilton’s gruff vocal performance; it remained at the top for four weeks in the early fall of 1967. The Box Tops scored a second major hit early the following year with “Cry Like a Baby,†which peaked at number two, and also made the top 25 with their singles “Neon Rainbow†& “Soul Deep.†After the Box Tops fizzled out in 1970, he embarked on a solo career in New York but it was the following year he began the second major phase of his career by joining the Memphis pop-rock band Big Star, whose other members were songwriter/guitarist Chris Bell, bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens. Although Big Star never enjoyed the commercial success the Box Tops did, they became the quintessential cult band postmortem, supremely influential long after their demise as the power pop movement, a melodic offshoot of punk and new wave—took hold…and his music and the influence he had on so many others will not be let go of.
