The Box Tops

The Box Tops

The Box Tops were a United States pop music group of the late 1960s. From Memphis, they are best known for the hits "The Letter," "Soul Deep" and "Cry Like A Baby," and are considered a major blue-eyed soul group of the period. They performed a mixture of current soul music songs by artists such as James and Bobby Purify and Clifford Curry, pop tunes such as "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Keith Reid and Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, and songs written by their producer Dan Penn. Vocalist Alex Chilton went on to front the pop band Big Star and to launch a career as a solo artist, during which he often performed songs he had sung with the Box Tops.

The Box Tops began as Ronnie and the DeVilles. The band was composed of Chilton, (lead vocal, guitar) Bill Cunningham (bass, keyboards, background vocal) John Evans (guitar, keyboards, background vocals) Danny Smythe (drums) and Gary Talley (lead guitar, background vocal).

As the Box Tops, they recorded Wayne Carson Thompson's "The Letter." It was an enormous success in late 1967, reaching Billboard's number-one position and remaining there for over a month. The record, produced by Dan Penn, sold over four million copies and received two Grammy awards nominations. Their single "Cry Like a Baby" was a major hit in 1968, and the album of the same name contained a song written by Spooner Oldham and Penn, "Fields of Clover." Many of their recordings' instrumental tracks were performed by the session musicians at Memphis's American Sound Studios.

By January 1968, John Evans and Danny Smythe returned to school and were replaced by Rick Allen (from the Gentrys) and Tom Boggs (from the Board of Directors). The band recorded seven more singles, including the Chips Moman-produced "Soul Deep," which was the group's final Top 40 entry. Bill Cunningham left to return to school in August 1969 and was replaced by Harold Cloud, but by February 1970, the Box Tops' recording contract ran out and the group disbanded.

The Box Tops combined elements of soul music and light pop and their records are some of the prime examples of the style made popular by Moman and Penn at American Studios in Memphis. Many of their less-popular songs are now regarded as minor classics; these include "Neon Rainbow," "Sweet Cream Ladies," "I Met Her in Church" and "Turn On a Dream." As rock critic Lester Bangs wrote in a review of the group's Super Hits album, "A song like 'Soul Deep' is obvious enough, a patented commercial sound, yet within these strictures it communicates with a depth and sincerity of feeling that holds the attention and brings you back often."

Chilton and the four other original founding members of the Box Tops reunited for a show in Nashville in the mid-'80s, recorded new material in the 1990s, and continued to perform. Village Voice writer Josh Goldfein said of Chilton during a 1999 New York performance by the reunited Box Tops, "He seemed pleased himself: the Box Tops' Memphis soul is certainly closer to his solo act than last year's mummified Big Star tour."

REFERENCES

Editors of Rolling Stone (1971). The Rolling Stone Record Review. New York: Pocket Books. [ISBN 671-78531-1]. (Review by Lester Bangs of Box Tops LPs Super Hits, Dimensions and Non-Stop. Review originally published Dec. 31, 1969. pp. 425-426.)

Goldfein, Josh. Village Voice, Sept. 8-14, 1999. "Box Bottom."

SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY

• The Letter/Neon Rainbow (1967)

• Cry Like a Baby (1968)

• Non-Stop (1968)

• Dimensions (1969)

• The Best of the Box Tops--Soul Deep (1996)

• Tear Off! (1998)