3.19.2010

Alex Chilton Remembered : Memphis Photo Galleries : The Commercial Appeal: Local Memphis, Tennessee News Delivered Throughout the Day.

Big Star in 1974. (Left to right) John Lightman, Jody Stephens and Alex Chilton.

Big Star in 1974. (Left to right) John Lightman, Jody Stephens and Alex Chilton.

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  • Alex Chilton of the 1970's rock band 'Big Star' performs at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, Friday, March 19, 2004. The singer and guitarist, best known as a member of '60s pop-soul act the Box Tops and the '70s power-pop act Big Star, died Wednesday, March 17, 2010, at a hospital in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett)

  • Alex Chilton in a 1970 Ardent Records promotional photograph. (By Michael O'Brien)

  • Alex Chilton in a 1970 Ardent Records promotional photograph. (By Michael O'Brien)

  • In 1971, four guys - Alex Chilton (right), Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel - started playing music together. In 1972, they released an album called '#1 Record.' It was anything but, and the followup, 'Radio City,' defied its name as well. Before 'Radio City,' guitarist and songwriter Bell left the band, only to be killed in a car wreck in 1978. Hummel also drifted away, leaving John Lightman playing bass. The band recorded a third album, 'Sister/Lovers,' but it wasn't released until 1978, several years after Big Star had dissolved.

  • Alex Chilton in an undated early photograph. For nearly a decade starting in 1962, American Sound Studios in Memphis churned out hit after hit: including The Letter and Cry Like a Baby by the Box Tops (with a young Alex Chilton). By the 1980's, Chilton and Big Star, would foster a generation of rock bands. Chilton died Wednesday, March 17, 2010, in New Orleans.

  • Big Star in 1974. (Left to right) John Lightman, Jody Stephens and Alex Chilton.

  • Big Star from left to right: Andy Hummel, Jody Stephens, Chris Bell and Alex Chilton. (By Mike O'Brien / RYKO)

  • In the early '80s, Chilton left Memphis for New Orleans, where he worked a variety of jobs and stopped performing for several years. But interest in his music from a new generation of alternative bands, including R.E.M. and the Replacements, brought him back to the stage in the mid-'80s.

  • Big Star in a 1993 photograph. Left to right are: Jonathan Auer, Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens and Ken Stringfellow. Stringfellow and Auer were playing in a Seattle band called The Posies before hooking up with Chilton and Stephens for for what was supposed to be just a single show at the University of Missouri at Columbia. That was in April 1993, and since then, Big Star has toured the United States and Japan, played festivals in Europe and even performed on The Tonight Show. Combined, they've played about as many shows in their latest incarnation as they did when the group first formed in the early '70s. (By Merlyn Rosenberg / Zoo Entertainment handout, Hollywood, CA)

  • Alex Chilton poses outside his home in New Orleans on Aug. 20, 1993. Chilton was the leader of the band Big Star in the early 1970s. Now it's 1993, and Big Star has a new album, 'Columbia: Live at Missouri University 4/25/93.' (AP Photo/Dave Steuber)

  • Alex Chilton and Big Star came home Saturday night, October 29, 1994 as the reunited band played its first Memphis concert in more than 20 years, drawing a new generation of fans along with old friends and family. Almost 18 months to the day after reuniting for what was planned to be a one-time-only appearance at a University of Missouri rock festival, Big Star played the New Daisy Theatre to a crowd of 860, just 40 short of a sellout. It was the largest audience Big Star has ever drawn in Memphis. Two nights later, Big Star performed on The Tonight Show. 'I've been here a lot longer than Jay,' chuckled Chilton before taping the Monday night show. In 1968, a 17-year-old Chilton appeared on The Tonight Show as lead singer with the Box Tops, then at the height of that Memphis band's popularity with the million-selling The Letter. The band included original members Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens along with guitarist Jon Auer and bassist Ken Stringfellow from the Big Star- influenced band the Posies.

  • Alex Chilton says goodnight to the crowd after he and his band Big Star returned to Memphis for a Stax reunion concert at the Gibson Guitar Lounge in April, 2003.

  • Alex Chilton returned to Memphis in April, 2003, with his band Big Star for a Stax reunion concert at the Gibson Guitar Lounge.

  • Alex Chilton of the 1970's rock band 'Big Star' performs at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, Friday, March 19, 2004. The singer and guitarist, best known as a member of '60s pop-soul act the Box Tops and the '70s power-pop act Big Star, died Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at a hospital in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Jack Plunkett)

  • Alex Chilton in undated handout photograph from before April 27, 1992.( Handout / Triad Artists, Inc.)

  • Alex Chilton in undated handout photograph before Aug. 24, 1987. ( Handout / By Stephanie Chernikowski)

  • Big Star's #1 Record

  • Big Star's Radio City record

  • Big Star's third album, The Third Album

  • Big Star's retrospective album released in 2009 by Rhino Records

via commercialappeal.com

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