Big Star "#1 Record" [1972]

There are plenty of stories throughout rock 'n roll history of a great band and/or album that somehow gets inexplicably overlooked by the music-buying public of its day. Big Star's "#1 Record" is not one of them. In fact, with this album, it's exceptionally easy to see why it failed: sounding like a demo reel from a post-Ron Wood Rod Stewart backup band with singer Alex Chilton switching from the pedestrian stylings of Keith Carradine to the helium-register of The Sweet and other groups that made the 70s completely unbearable, "#1 Record" was sunk before it ever got launched. Ripping off Beatles sections so nakedly you can hear Todd Rundgren taking out a hit on these guys, a good example of how unsuccessful this record was is when "In the Street" became the theme song for "That 70s Show" and absolutely nobody recognized it. Big Star rocks as obviously and amateurishly as T. Rex, but without any of the mystique. That anyone could prefer a curly haired munchkin who sings songs about cars and fairies over these guys ought to tell you how badly you'd have to go slumming it out behind the gas station in a working class rustbelt state like Ohio or somewhere to get on the same level as this record. Big Star and Chilton did enjoy a bit of success beyond Fox primetime TV when wise-ass Gen-Xers got into irony: both calling themselves Big Star and naming their album "#1 Record" has got this in droves.