Anatomy of a Hit!

"Here I am at the top, doing something I don't understand and don't really have any feeling for and getting really famous for it. Gee! But it's good to find that out when you're young: Fame can make you money, but it's a big pain in the ass. There are real advantages to being unknown. - Alex Chilton

There's an interesting story of a hit song within the larger story of Alex Chilton's life. The song is "The Letter." It was a mammoth hit in 1967 for the Box Tops, it hit number 1, and stayed there for four weeks. It was the "song of the year," it was one of the theme songs for soldiers in Vietnam, it was part of the soundtrack of the late sixties. It then became a classic top forty hit, that has probably been played a gazillion times since.

Alex Chilton was 16 years old when the song hit the charts. The song certainly "changed his life." As lead singer of a very popular Pop band, Alex was propelled into a hyper-driven life of "sex, drugs & r&r." What's really interesting and kind of funny - Alex wasn't really that committed to the Box Tops, he wasn't that happy with the music of the band, they weren't really his band, they weren't really his songs, the fame that came crashing down upon him, was for something that kind of came to him "accidentally." He rode the wave, but it wasn't really his wave.

And the fame and popularity came upon him so swiftly and effortlessly. It must have been so unreal, and set up such unrealistic expectations, and here he was just a kid.  Kind of the classic child star thing. It's kind of a cliche and a template for lots of kids around the world. One song did that. One song.

You listen to that song on the radio: it's short, to the point, it moves. It's really a great song. And Alex sounds amazing. He sounds a little grizzled, soulful, world-weary.  But it was kind of an act of mimicry. It was an act. It was effective. Alex gave it is all. It's a great performance. But it wasn't really him. He was just doing it. Which might be good enough. But really it sort of messed with his head. And one suspects he never really got over that moment, that song.

Now, of course, singers can sing songs written by others, and make those songs their own. Alex in a sense did do that, but at the same time, he didn't. And that had major ramifications for his life. 

Here's Alex & the Box Tops live at the Bitter End:

Joe Cocker covered it too. And for some reason you think Joe had no ambivalence about doing this song at all. It was a soul classic, and that was him, it was who he was.  He made the song his own.

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