History Music / BigStar

Big Star was a legendary PowerPop band from Memphis, famous for their complete failure to gain massive commercial success but being embraced by the indie scene and remaining a significant influence on AlternativeRock.

** In "Daisy Glaze", Chilton quotes the "nullify my life" line from the Music/VelvetUnderground's "Heroin".

* BalladOfX: "The Ballad of [[ElSpanishO El Goodo]]"

** The band's own songs have been covered in turn, the most frequent ones being "Thirteen" (by Music/{{Garbage}}, Music/ElliottSmith, Music/{{Wilco}}, Kathryn Williams and others), "September Gurls" (by Music/TheBangles, The Searchers and Superdrag), "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust" (by Music/ThisMortalCoil). Notably, Chilton said that the Big Star cover he liked the most was Garbage's version of "Thirteen".

'''Notice''': If you're trying to use the standalone BigStar markup to refer to this band, don't. It is a disambiguation page

The band was formed in 1971, when Chilton (former lead singer for '60s blue-eyed soul group The Box Tops) joined Bell, Hummel and Stephens' band Icewater. Taking the name "Big Star" from a regional grocery store chain, they were quickly snatched up by Ardent Records, a subsidiary of the famous soul/R&B label Creator/StaxRecords. Stax had hit a bad spell and its future was uncertain, so they thought Ardent and Big Star would become successful and manage to stave off the company's decline.

The band was formed in 1971, when Chilton (former lead singer for '60s blue-eyed soul group The Box Tops) joined Bell, Hummel and Stephens' band Icewater. Taking the name "Big Star" from a regional grocery store chain, they were quickly snatched up by Ardent Records, a subsidiary of the famous soul/R&B label Stax Records. Stax had hit a bad spell and its future was uncertain, so they thought Ardent and Big Star would become successful and manage to stave off the company's decline.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Holocaust".

* GenreThrowback: The band played melodic, BritishInvasion-influenced pop at the height of ProgressiveRock.

* CoverVersion: On ''Third/Sister Lovers'', we have: "Femme Fatale" by The Music/VelvetUnderground, "Nature Boy" by NatKingCole, "'Till the End of the Day" by TheKinks, and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" by Music/JerryLeeLewis.

'''Big Star''' was a legendary PowerPop band from Memphis, famous for their complete failure to gain massive commercial success but being embraced by the indie scene and remaining a significant influence on AlternativeRock.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Third/Sister Lovers'' sounded more like ''Music/OdesseyAndOracle''-era [[Music/TheZombies Zombies]] than Music/TheWho.

* AscendedFanboy: Chris Bell met Music/PaulMcCartney while working on material for what became his posthumous solo album.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Third/Sister Lovers'' sounded more like ''Music/OdesseyAndOracle''-era [[Music/TheZombies Zombies]] than TheWho.

The band's first album, the humorously-titled ''#1 Record'', was quickly recorded at Ardent Studios with label founder John Fry as [[RecordProducer producer]] and released in 1972. While it did obtain widespread acclaim, Stax's financial difficulties translated into an inability to get the album into stores, torpedoing the goal that the title playfully alluded to. The album itself proved to be a landmark in the establishment of PowerPop thanks to its catchy Music/TheBeatles-plus-Music/TheWho songwriting and several of its songs have remained widely celebrated in the genre, such as "Feel", "The Ballad of El Goodo", "In the Street" (later covered by Music/CheapTrick as the theme song to ''That70sShow'') and "Thirteen". One song in particular, the chaotic, [[Music/TheRollingStones Stonesy]] rock of "Don't Lie to Me", would predict the group's sonic evolution.

** "Thirteen" has the lyrics ''Tell him what we said about [[Music/RollingStones "Paint it Black"]]''.
** And in reverse, KatyPerry's manager is a huge fan of the band and asked her to name her song "California Gurls" as a tribute after Alex died. We promise this is the last time we'll say "Big Star" and "Katy Perry" in the same sentence.
** The count-off that starts "She's a Mover" is reminiscent of Music/TheBeatles' "Taxman".
* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Andy Hummel on "The India Song", and Jody Stephens on "Way Out West" and "For You".

* VocalTagTeam: Chilton and Bell, on ''#1 Record''.

Chilton revived Big Star in 1993 alongside old mate Stephens and new blood Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of ThePosies. A new album, ''In Space'', followed in 2005 to a predictably mixed reception.

While Big Star failed to become what their name and debut album envisioned them to be, they were eagerly embraced by the emerging AlternativeRock scene at the beginning of TheEighties - the first wave of popular alt-rock bands led by Music/{{REM}} were nicknamed "jangle pop" and owed an obvious debt to Big Star. Later on, DreamPop supergroup ThisMortalCoil helped re-awaken interest in Big Star through their covers of "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust". Chilton went on to a erratic solo career, and Chris Bell put out a well-received single, "I Am the Cosmos"/"You and Your Sister" (which was later covered by Music/ThisMortalCoil), before dying of a car accident in December 1978. The funeral was held the next day, which happened to be Chilton's birthday. An album of Bell's post-Big Star recordings, also titled ''I Am the Cosmos'', was released in 1992.

The band's first album, the humorously-titled ''#1 Record'', was quickly recorded at Ardent Studios with label founder John Fry as [[RecordProducer producer]] and released in 1972. While it did obtain widespread acclaim, Stax's financial difficulties translated into an inability to get the album into stores, torpedoing the goal that the title playfully alluded to. The album itself proved to be a landmark in the establishment of PowerPop thanks to its catchy Music/TheBeatles-plus-TheWho songwriting and several of its songs have remained widely celebrated in the genre, such as "Feel", "The Ballad of El Goodo", "In the Street" (later covered by CheapTrick as the theme song to ''That70sShow'') and "Thirteen". One song in particular, the chaotic, [[Music/RollingStones Stonesy]] rock of "Don't Lie to Me", would predict the group's sonic evolution.

While Big Star failed to become what their name and debut album envisioned them to be, they were eagerly embraced by the emerging AlternativeRock scene at the beginning of TheEighties - the first wave of popular alt-rock bands led by {{REM}} were nicknamed "jangle pop" and owed an obvious debt to Big Star. Later on, DreamPop supergroup ThisMortalCoil helped re-awaken interest in Big Star through their covers of "Kangaroo" and "Holocaust". Chilton went on to a erratic solo career, and Chris Bell put out a well-received single, "I Am the Cosmos"/"You and Your Sister" (which was later covered by Music/ThisMortalCoil), before dying of a car accident in December 1978. The funeral was held the next day, which happened to be Chilton's birthday. An album of Bell's post-Big Star recordings, also titled ''I Am the Cosmos'', was released in 1992.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Third/Sister Lovers'' sounded more like ''Odessey and Oracle''-era [[Music/TheZombies Zombies]] than TheWho.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Third/Sister Lovers'' sounded more like ''Odessey and Oracle''-era Zombies than TheWho.