Big Star’s #1 Record in 1972, should have been one of the year’s huge sellers, but only managed to sell approximately 10,000 copies. A fine example of how not to market a band in it’s accendancy! Big Star are to this day, a ‘cult’ band, but should and could have been so much more, such is the high quality of songwriting hidden within this album. Chris Bell and Alex Chilton came together after their respective bands broke up, and created a heady mix of Bell’s gentler, melodic almost Beatlesque songs [My life is right, Give me another chance, Try again], together with Chilton’s soulful and rockier material [When my baby’s beside me, Don’t lie to me, Ballad of El Goodo].

What should have been a massive debut album from this talented group, really ended up being ignored by everyone not ‘in the know’. Stax records who were in charge of distribution, could not make the album available enough to stores across the country, and therefore the album failed to sell the units the band were expecting. Chris Bell was the first to express his huge disappointment at the lack of sales, and by the time the band had started on the follow-up, had left the band to pursue a solo career [sadly he was killed in an automobile accident in 1978, having just completed his debut solo album].

The band’s sound seemed to be lost after Bell left, and thus became more rougher-edged and less polished, but #1 Record is now known as an underrated classic by many rock artists and music fans around the globe. It simply oozes quality songwriting and has rare beauty within it’s grooves.

10/10.