#1 Record/Radio City

Big Star

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 10, 1992)
• 2-Album Edition edition
• Original Release Date: June 10, 1992
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Fantasy
• ASIN: B000000XHA
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,689 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #92 in

  Music > Rock > Power Pop

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A two-for-one combo of the first two Big Star albums (they only recorded three). Heard side by side, #1 Record and Radio City only add further testament to Big Star's seminal greatness. On the first album, Chris Bell and Alex Chilton share songwriting credit, though each brings a remarkably different sensibility to the band: Bell creates pure pop nuggets ("Feel") while Chilton swaggers with reckless melancholy ("Ballad of El Goodo," "Thirteen."). After Bell's departure, Chilton took control of the helm for Radio City, and what a ride it is. While not abandoning Bell's penchant for pop, Radio City careens wildly through some of the most exhilarating music ever created, from the rave-up opener, "O My Soul," to the pure pop masterpiece "September Girls" to the whimsical ditty "I'm in Love with a Girl." It's too bad that Big Star didn't create more albums, but thank God they made the ones they did. --Tod Nelson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Here's The Truth About Their Commercial Failure, August 30, 2000

By	Eric M. Van (Watertown, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

No group in the history of rock 'n' roll ever put out three albums in a row as brilliant as Big Star. And it's hard to find any group that changed so radically as Big Star did in the span of three records. I've found that Big Star fans tend to fall into three camps:

1) Regards #1 RECORD as an all-time masterpiece, loves or likes RADIO CITY a lot, has a problem with SISTER LOVERS -- it's too acid-casualty incoherent.

2) Regards SISTER LOVERS as an all-time masterpiece, loves or likes RADIO CITY a lot, has a problem with #1 RECORD -- it's too slick and commercial.

3) Regards RADIO CITY as an all-time masterpiece and loves both the other two in their own very different ways.

And, of course, some of us are "3+" -- they're all masterpieces in my book, but RADIO CITY is the creme de la creme.

Other reviewers have done a wonderful job of describing this music and its enormous influence on indy rock. However, some have repeated the rather pernicious myth about the commercial failure of the listener-friendly #1 RECORD: that radio programmers didn't like it, that the record's sound was somehow wrong for its time.

There are folks at BILLBOARD and CASHBOX magazines who were paid well to listen to new releases and report on their commercial potential. Here's what BILLBOARD said on 9/9/72: "Each and every cut on this album has the inherent potential to become a blockbuster single. The ramifications are positively awesome." Boy, hedging their bet, huh? Here's CASHBOX a week later: "An important album that should go to the top with proper handling."

But just after the record was released, Ardent Records and its parent label, Stax, got into a distribution mess. Not only was there no promo activity at radio stations, there were no records in stores for people to buy. No radio station was going to go out on its own to play a record that wasn't in stores, no matter what the trade mags were saying. End of story. And it's impossible to understand why Alex Chilton and Chris Bell fell apart psychologically (and why Chilton has gone out of his way to be anti-commercial ever since) without knowing this part of the story.

In the spring of 1975 I was a college radio DJ. I happened to be playing "When My Baby's Beside Me" while a group of high school kids were being given a tour of the station. A bunch of them knocked on the control room door and wide-eyed and breathlessly demanded to know what the song was and who did it. So, yeah, 16 year old kids hearing #1 RECORD for the first time, back more or less when it was made, had the same jaw-dropping reaction to it that people do now. Genius is timeless. And had Big Star been signed to a major label, rock 'n' roll history would be enormously different.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incalculable influence - great songs and performances, December 1, 2003

By	Perry M. Koons "theeighthbeatle" (Crownsville, MD United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The merits of Big Star can hardly be overstated due to the band's lasting influence on soooo many artists - an ABRIDGED list might include Tom Petty, Cheap Trick, Replacements, R.E.M., Game Theory, Bangles, Teenage Fanclub, and Jimmy Eat World. Of course, with most of these bands becoming MUCH more well known than Big Star, the influence is diminished somewhat because the original is heard AFTER the followers. Regardless, Big Star's 1st 2 albums create an essential release made even sweeter by the 2-for-1 deal, and the tunes still sound fresh listen after listen. A few songs drag a bit, to my ears anyway, but even the less enjoyable tracks like "Don't Lie To Me" and "Life Is White" are worthy due to great performances and lyrics. Along with Badfinger, Big Star is the absolute touchstone for melancholy pop songs that should have been huge hits - forming the basis for every power pop pretender to the throne. Fans of any aforementioned bands will do themselves a favor to pick this up, along with fans of absolute classics such as the Who, Beatles, and Byrds (lead genius Alex Chilton's faves).

Best Tracks:
"The Ballad Of El Goodo" - George Harrison-esque, shimmering ballad with stunning harmonies and guitars. One of the most celebrated examples of Chilton's genius.
"In The Street" - The feel-good Chris Bell classic that was used in "That 70's Show" (warning: that version was done by Cheap Trick!)
"Thirteen" - Another Chilton gem. Gorgeous acoustics, tender and somewhat striking lyrics. A great, honest portrait of youth.
"Way Out West" - Oh, those guitars... What a tune, this is the blueprint for all left of center jangle pop (and the guitar tone is frequently channeled by pop wonders such as Myracle Brah)
"Back Of A Car" - Great drumming! This song follows typical pop song structure but is quirky enough to stand out, and that chorus is to die for.
"September Gurls" - Depending on personal preference, this may edge out songs like "Surrender" and "Couldn't I Just Tell You" to be the #1 pop song EVER.
"I'm In Love With A Girl" - Heartbreaking and sweet, this is a pure and simple folksy ballad with engagingly imperfect vocals. Great album closer.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Music that is almost inconceivably good, September 8, 2001

By	Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Big Star is one of those rare bands that have almost been overpraised, while paradoxically have still not been praised enough. #1 RECORD/RADIO CITY really are as good as they have been portrayed. #1 RECORD features one incredible pop song after another, the work of the combined genius of Chris Bell and Alex Chilton. RADIO CITY largely lost Chris Bell as a contributor (due to profound depression), but while it differs from #1 RECORD, it is, if anything, an even better album, featuring some of the greatest songs ever penned by an American rocker. Each song on the CD is nearly perfect, and hearing one you would swear it is the highlight of the disc, only to find that the next one is just as perfect, and just as delightful. Just as an example, #1 RECORD begins with the incredible "Feel," only to move on to "El Goodo," which in turn gives way to "In the Street," which is followed by the classic teen ballad "Thirteen." Four absolutely perfect songs, each very different from the others. How can so many great songs be on a single album? And the album then moves on to other songs just as fine.

It is testimony to the greatness of these records that ten lovers of the album might have a different song as their favorite cut. My favs are "Way Out West" (with one of my all time favorite lyrics: "Sometimes, I think she'll make me forget/
What I need most to remember") "Mod Lang," and the exquisite "September Gurls," but I wouldn't quibble with someone who preferred as many as a dozen songs above those. The albums are that good.

If you don't own this album, it is imperative that you acquire a copy immediately. This is as good as any music that has been produced in the United States in the past 35 years.