Big Star, much like the Velvet Underground, were fated to own the future and struggle in the present. The power-pop group from Memphis was beloved by critics, ignored by record buyers, and struggled to make three records during its original run. Their influence, however, is colossal, making them one of the best alternative bands of all time.

Alex Chilton’s Big Star didn’t get to record many songs, let alone albums. These, however, are the 10 best songs from the brief, legendary discography.

Greatest 10 Songs by Big Star

10. “Back of a Car”

It couldn’t be helped, but Big Star’s timing couldn’t have been worse. “#1 Record” was a debut specialising in pretty melodies and beautifully layered jangly guitars. It had worked for The Beatles, and it would work for bands like R.E.M.

Instead of becoming a hit record, as the title suggested, this was appreciated solely by critics and pop music fanatics.

But the album was loaded with potential hits. “Back of a Car” recalled the gorgeous singing that fans of a previous generation might’ve loved to hear on Badfinger records. Time’s been kind to it and the rest of the songs on the album.

9. “Thank You Friends”

For the musicians in it, Big Star ended after the completion of their second record. For dedicated music collectors, the journey had just begun.

A third album was released in the late 1970s. It was a collection of odds and ends. But, in many ways, it revealed more about Big Star than the first two albums had.

Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens had worked on it. “Thank You Friends” is a highlight of “Third.” The album, sometimes referred to as “Sister Lovers,” features some of the band’s most beautiful vocal harmonies and Chilton’s sardonic sense of humour. Can a band really fail if they unequivocally managed to record some of the best songs of their era?

8. “O My Soul”

Who knows if Alex Chilton was bitter? He did name Big Star’s second record “Radio City.” And songs like “O My Soul” do sound like the kind you hear on classic radio stations all the time.

While radio politely ignored it, the playing, singing and melodies contain traces of magic. Maybe Stax Records could’ve done better had they not been fighting off bankruptcy worries. Recognised or not, Big Star is one of the great American bands of the 1970s.

7. “When My Baby’s Beside Me”

Big Star and Raspberries were the only bands doing this kind of sound at the time. Or, at the very least, they were the only ones who could do it as competently as this.

“When My Baby’s Beside Me” is played with the confidence of musicians who know that they’re in a really good band. The excellently orchestrated record was a source of inspiration for future power-pop groups. It was enthusiastically reviewed. It was fated to be a cult classic.

6. “I’m In Love With A Girl”

Alex Chilton could orchestrate garage-rock operas. But he was equally capable of throwing out great, short songs over a simple guitar strum.

There aren’t any tricks that prop up “I’m In Love With A Girl.” All that you get is Chilton’s superb singing voice over a folk-country backing. But that’s enough. It’s enough to remind you of The Beatles or The Kinks. And those groups ended up being a pretty big deal, don’t you know?

5. “Kanga Roo”

The music of The Beatles progressively got more challenging with each new record. That’s why, likely, “Kanga Roo” would’ve been a great addition, easily accepted, to a fourth or fifth record by an established Big Star.

Instead, it lay hidden on a record of deep cuts and waiting to be discovered. But the beautiful melancholy of it was unearthed. This Mortal Coil memorably covered this, along with “Holocaust,” in 1984. Jeff Buckley covered it in the 1990s. And, from Wilco to The Decembrists, from R.E.M. to Jay Reatard, musicians with a taste for good records have sung Big Star’s praises. What a gem!

4. “In The Street”

They called them the Lennon/McCartney of the 1970s. Maybe they were. However, the collaboration between Alex Chilton and Chris Bell was brief. Disappointing sales and clashing egos mean that we only got to hear the musicians work on a handful of songs.

Those few songs are, however, bona fide classics. “In The Street” feels like a softly written hard-rocker. Bell sings the hell out of it. And, it deserved to become a hit when it was featured as the intro to “That ’70s Show,” albeit with a version performed by equally influential power-pop band Cheap Trick.

3. “Thirteen”

Alex Chilton had been a teenage rock star. He’d sung for The Box Tops, the band behind “The Letter,” one of the biggest songs of the 1960s.

It hadn’t exactly been an accident. Chilton, the son of a jazz musician, possessed fantastic writing skills by the time he formed Big Star. Chris Bell’s influence merely helped to sharpen those.

“Thirteen” is one of the simplest, effective pop songs that you’re ever likely to hear. The Replacements, Wilco and The Lemonheads learned from it. And, I encourage young songwriters to do the same!

2. “September Gurls”

Critics were left frustrated. They’d heard it before. And whatever it was that they recognised as “good” or “talented,” they heard in Big Star’s music.

“September Gurls” sounds like a hit from the very first moment you hear it. The singing, hook, and production are undeniable.

It’d become a hit later for The Bangles. It’d help Big Star be listened to decades after the recording. But, no, it did not turn the group members, who were a trio by the time of the second album, into big stars.

1. “The Ballad of El Goodo”

“The Ballad of El Goodo” is to power-pop what “Bohemian Rhapsody” is to progressive and classic rock. It’s a short song that, when taken apart, includes a myriad of sophisticated complex parts that musicologists will be studying for decades to come.

The guitar chord progression and the melodies may be the hook. But it’s the easy-going promise of refusing to be weighed down by pessimism that really defines Big Star’s work.

“The Ballad of El Goodo” is one of the great pop-rock records and Big Star’s shining moment.