Grapthar's Song of the Day: Big Star 'In The Street'

grapthar (74)in #music • 6 years ago

Big Star - In The Street

Big Star was rock band formed in 1971

in Memphis, Tennessee by members Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Andy Hummel, and Jody Stephens. They are often considered one of the most influential powerpop bands of the decade, although during the original incarnation of the band, they didn't receive a lot of mainstream success, partially due to problems with their record label (Stax) being unable/unwilling to produce enough copies of their albums. Columbia Records eventually bought out Stax, but decided to not deal with the independent artists that Stax had released, which resulted in their first album being completely removed from shelves. It's unfortunate this happened, as I personally think their first album could have been a major hit at the time.

Listen to In The Street by Big Star here.

You may recognize this song,

as it was covered by Cheap Trick and used for the theme song to the sitcom That 70's Show. I am much more partial to the original version, although the cover is interesting too. I love the simplicity of Big Star songs; they usually consist of some relatively simple chord progressions, which provide a solid pop-structure base for the rest of the song to be built upon. Alex Chilton was a great songwriter and definitely was able to write a seriously catchy chorus, which this song definitely has.