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For Alex Chilton, coping with the legacy of The Box Tops wasn’t always easy. As the band’s frontman – and future cult hero as leader of Big Star – once ruminated to the San Francisco Chronicle, “I guess my life has been a series of flukes in the record business.  The first thing I ever did was the biggest record that I’ll ever have.” He was, of course, speaking of “The Letter,” the Wayne Carson Thompson song that opens Raven Records’ new 2-CD collection The Original Albums 1967-1969 containing all four of The Box Tops’ Bell albums plus a selection of bonus tracks.

Chilton was still a teenager when “The Letter” ascended to the top of the pops, reaching No. 1. Recording at Memphis’ famed American Studios, producer Dan Penn emphasized Chilton’s raspy, deep and beyond-his-years growl of a voice. As author Holly George-Warren writes in her definitive Chilton biography A Man Called Destruction, “In mid-August 1967, for their first concert outside the South, The Box Tops arrived in Philadelphia to perform atop a hot dog stand at the city’s fairgrounds. Expecting a black R&B group, the concert’s promoter scoffed at the group’s unlikely appearance, until Alex growled an a cappella ‘Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane…’”

It’s been debated to what degree Memphis’ legendary session musicians played on the Box Tops’ recordings (as indeed they did play on them), but the band’s first album The Letter was credited to Chilton (lead vocals), Bill Cunningham (bass), Gary Talley (guitar), Danny Smythe (drums) and John Evans (keyboards). Carson’s “She Knows How” and “Neon Rainbow,” a No. 24 hit, were also featured on the album simply called The Letter/Neon Rainbow, along with other pop-soul contributions from the prolific producer Penn and his writing partner Spooner Oldham (“Everything I Am,” “Happy Times,” “I’m Your Puppet,” “I Pray for Rain”), Bobby Womack (“People Make the World,” “Gonna Find Somebody”) and covers of songs by Procol Harum (“A Whiter Shade of Pale”), Burt Bacharach and Hal David (“Trains and Boats and Planes,” complete with the bridge that so many rock versions eschewed) and John D. Loudermilk (“Break My Mind”).

With the success of “The Letter” and “Neon Rainbow,” a second LP was rushed into production. This one was anchored by Penn and Oldham’s electric sitar-driven “Cry Like a Baby.” The 1968 album Cry Like a Baby boasted that No. 13 hit – still in regular oldies radio rotation today much like “The Letter” – as well as three more Penn/Oldham tunes, one solo Penn song, and two cuts from Mickey Newbury of “An American Trilogy” fame. The Box Tops even tackled a different kind of soul – Motown – with their cover of The Supremes’ “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” clearly by way of Vanilla Fudge’s progressive reworking. The makeup of the group was changing, too, with Rick Allen (keyboards) and Tom Boggs (drums) credited alongside their predecessors Evans and Smythe on Cry Like a Baby. Joe Savage would step in on bass before 1968 was through.

The title of The Box Tops’ third LP – and second of 1968 – was accurate: Non-Stop. The album arrived just three months after Cry Like a Baby, and included two minor hits: Donnie Fritts and Eddie Hinton’s “Choo Choo Train” and Penn and Oldham’s “I Met Her in Church.” Wayne Carson Thompson returned with “Sandman,” the Fritts/Hinton and Penn/Oldham teams each contributed one additional song, and a band member finally earned a writing credit on a Box Tops album with Chilton’s “I Can Dig It.” B.B. King’s “Rock Me Baby” made its first appearance; it would return in a new recording on The Box Tops’ next LP.

But personnel changes continued to dog the band. The group’s fourth and final album, from 1969, was still recorded at American Studios, but this time with Tommy Cogbill and American’s owner Chips Moman at the helm. Dimensions, with its trippy cover artwork, emphasized themes of love and togetherness appropriate to the era, and featured more musical participation from the band members. It also illustrated Chilton’s ongoing growth as a songwriter. It featured three of his compositions (“Together,” “I Must Be the Devil” and “The Happy Song,” which he later re-recorded solo). “Hooked on a Feeling” and “Suspicious Minds” writer Mark James offered up his second credit on a Box Tops album following Cry Like a Baby’s “Lost” with “Midnight Angel.” Wayne Carson Thompson came full circle giving The Box Tops their final Top 20 hit with his “Soul Deep”, and other songs were pulled from the songbooks of Neil Diamond (“Ain’t No Way”), Chip Taylor and Al Gorgoni (“I’ll Hold Out My Hand”) and Basement Tapes-era Bob Dylan (“I Shall Be Released”). Chilton had brought the last song into the studio, taken with The Band’s rendition on Music from Big Pink.

Raven adds seven bonus tracks to the four original albums: the mono single versions of “The Letter” and “Cry Like a Baby,” the mono non-LP single sides “I See Only Sunshine,” “You Keep Tightening Up on Me,” “Come On Honey” and “Since I Been Gone,” and the outtake “Lay Your Shine on Me.” Those who already own Sundazed’s out-of-print CD reissues should hold onto them, as they include nineteen bonus tracks across four discs; all seven bonus tracks here are included on the Sundazed discs.

The Original Albums 1967-1969 boasts a full-color booklet including a career-chronicling essay by Keith Glass. Warren Barnett has remastered all tracks for Raven. With all other editions of this material currently out-of-print, this set is an affordable and enjoyable way to pick up The Box Tops’ core catalogue of bold, brassy pop, R&B and soul – and a great way for Big Star fans to get in on the ground floor of Alex Chilton’s singular musical journey. The 2-CD set is available now at the links below!

The Box Tops, The Original Albums 1967-1969 (Raven RVCD-385, 2015) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

CD 1

1. The Letter
2. She Knows How
3. Trains and Boats and Planes
4. Break My Mind
5. Whiter Shade of Pale
6. Everything I Am
7. Neon Rainbow
8. People Make the World
9. I’m Your Puppet
10. Happy Times (Mono)
11. Gonna Find Somebody
12. I Pray for Rain
13. Cry Like a Baby
14. Deep in Kentucky
15. I’m the One for You
16. Weeping Analeah
17. Every Time
18. Fields of Clover
19. Trouble with Sam
20. Lost
21. Good Morning Dear
22. 727
23. You Keep Me Hanging On
24. The Letter (Mono Single Version)
25. Cry Like a Baby (Mono Single Version)
26. I See Only Sunshine (Mono Single)
27. You Keep Tightening Up on Me (Mono Single)
28. Come On Honey (Mono Single)

CD 2

1. Choo Choo Train
2. I’m Movin’ On
3. Sandman
4. She Shot a Hole in My Soul
5. People Gonna Talk
6. I Met Her in Church
7. Rock Me Baby
8. Rollin’ in My Sleep
9. I Can Dig It
10. Yesterday Where’s My Mind
11. If I Had Let You In
12. Soul Deep
13. I Shall Be Released
14. Midnight Angel
15. Together
16. I’ll Hold Out My Hand
17. I Must Be the Devil
18. Sweet Cream Ladies Forward March
19. (The) Happy Song
20. Ain’t No Way
21. Rock Me Baby
22. Since I Been Gone (Mono Single)
23. Lay Your Shine on Me (Mono Outtake)

CD 1 Tracks 1-12 from The Letter/Neon Rainbow, Bell 6011, 1967
CD 1, Tracks 13-23 from Cry Like a Baby, Bell 6017, 1968
CD 1, Track 24 from Mala single 565, 1967
CD 1, Track 25 from Mala single 593, 1968
CD 1, Track 26 from Mala single 12035, 1969
CD 1, Tracks 27-28 from Bell single 865, 1970
CD 2, Tracks 1-11 from Non-Stop, Bell 6023, 1968
CD 2, Tracks 12-21 from Dimensions, Bell 6032, 1969
CD 2, Track 22 from Bell single 981, 1970
CD 2, Track 23 from Dimensions, Sundazed SC 6161, 2000