Shortly thereafter, Chris Bell was killed in a car accident at the age of 27.ĭuring the group's hiatus in the 1980s, the Big Star discography drew renewed attention when R.E.M. The band's third album was finally issued soon afterward titled Third/Sister Lovers, it found limited commercial success, but has since become a cult classic. Four years later, the first two Big Star LPs were released together in the UK as a double album. Like #1 Record, Radio City received excellent reviews, but label issues again thwarted sales- Columbia Records, which had assumed control of the Stax catalog, likewise effectively vetoed its distribution.Īfter a third album, recorded in the fall of 1974, was deemed commercially unviable and shelved before receiving a title, the band broke up late in 1974. Frustration took its toll on band relations: Bell left not long after the first record's commercial progress stalled, and Hummel left to finish his college education after a second album, Radio City, was completed in December 1973. Three of Big Star's studio albums are included in the Rolling Stone's list of the Top 500 Albums of All-Time.īig Star's first album, 1972's #1 Record, was met by enthusiastic reviews, but ineffective marketing by Stax Records, and limited distribution stunted its commercial success. Before they broke up, Big Star created a 'seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations', in the words of Rolling Stone, as the 'quintessential American power pop band', and 'one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll'. Big Star produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Byrds. The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new lineup 18 years later following a reunion concert at the University of Missouri. Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel.

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