| The Letter/Neon Rainbow | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 1967 | |||
| Studio | American Sound, Memphis, Tennessee | |||
| Genre | Memphis soul | |||
| Length | 34:56 | |||
| Label | Bell | |||
| Producer | Dan Penn | |||
| The Box Tops chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Letter/Neon Rainbow is the debut album by American rock band the Box Tops, released in 1967. Following "The Letter" reaching number one on the singles charts, The Letter/Neon Rainbow was quickly assembled for a follow up. The album peaked at number 87 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart in 1968.
Most of the backing tracks were performed by session musicians; however the original group played the hit "The Letter". The session musicians likely consisted of Reggie Young and Bobby Womack (guitars), Tommy Cogbill (bass), Bobby Emmons (piano, organ), and Gene Chrisman (drums). [1] [2]
Although lead singer Alex Chilton (16 at the time) had already written a number of songs, none were included on the Box Tops' debut LP, perhaps due to his relative inexperience with songwriting. Chilton later had a significant songwriting role in the cult power pop band Big Star, and after the dissolution of the group continued to develop his career as a solo artist. [3]
The Letter/Neon Rainbow was re-released on CD in 2000 on the Sundazed label (SC 6158) with four additional tracks. These included the mono single versions of "The Letter" and "Neon Rainbow"; the 1969 single "Turn on a Dream"; and the previously unreleased track "Georgia Farm Boy".
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [2] |
| The New Rolling Stone Album Guide | [4] |
Writing for AllMusic, music critic Richie Unterberger notes Chilton's strong vocals but called the album "a spotty affair showing every indication of having been assembled very quickly in the wake of "The Letter" soaring to number one". [2] In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (2004), contributor Greg Kot writes, the "debut album is steeped in Memphis soul, with touches of country and blues, an approach that would remain intact on subsequent releases". [4]
with:
The Shadows of Knight were an American rock band from Chicago, Illinois, that played a version of British blues influenced by their native city. When they began recording in 1965, the band's self-description was "the Stones, Animals and the Yardbirds took the Chicago blues and gave it an English interpretation. We've taken the English version of the Blues and re-added a Chicago touch," to which rock critic Richie Unterberger commented: "The Shadows of Knight's self-description was fairly accurate."
The Box Tops is an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1967. They are best known for the hits "The Letter", "Cry Like a Baby", "Choo Choo Train," and "Soul Deep" 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 & Bobby Purify and Clifford Curry; pop tunes such as "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum; and songs written by their producers, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and Chips Moman. Vocalist Alex Chilton went on to front the power pop band Big Star and to launch a career as a solo artist, during which he occasionally performed songs he had sung with the Box Tops.
Christopher Branford Bell was an American musician, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star through its first album #1 Record (1972). He also pursued a solo career throughout the mid-1970s, resulting in the posthumous I Am the Cosmos LP.
"Watching Rainbows" is an unreleased song by the Beatles recorded on 14 January 1969 during the Get Back sessions at Twickenham Studios. It features John Lennon on lead vocal and electric piano, Paul McCartney on lead guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums. No bass guitar was present as McCartney was filling in for the absent George Harrison, who had temporarily left the group at that stage of the sessions. The song is played in two chords and has since been compared to "I Am the Walrus" and "I've Got a Feeling" for the similarities in the song's lyrics and structure.
Dan Penn is an American songwriter, singer, musician, and record producer, who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s, including "The Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" with Chips Moman and "Cry Like a Baby" with Spooner Oldham. Penn also produced many hits, including "The Letter", by The Box Tops. He has been described as a white soul and blue-eyed soul singer. Penn has released relatively few records featuring his own vocals and musicianship, preferring the relative anonymity of songwriting and producing.
"The Letter" is a song written by Wayne Carson that was first recorded by the American rock band the Box Tops in 1967. It was the group's first and most succesfful single, reaching number one on the record charts in the United States and Canada. It was also an international success and placed in the top ten in several other countries.
William Cunningham is the original bass guitarist / keyboardist for the Box Tops.
Volume 3: A Child's Guide to Good and Evil is the fourth album by the American psychedelic rock band The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band (WCPAEB), and was released on Reprise Records in May 1968. By the time the group commenced recording Volume 3, guitarist Danny Harris had excused himself from the WCPAEB, reducing their numbers to a trio. As with the WCPAEB's earlier work, the album saw the band continue to blend psychedelic influences and complex studio techniques, and was marked by a bizarre fusion of innocence and malice in the band's lyrics. Volume 3 featured the WCPAEB's most ambitious music to date, and the striking cover art of John Van Hamersveld, yet it failed to sell in sufficient copies to chart nationally. In more recent times, the album has been considered the band's most accomplished work and a masterpiece of the psychedelic genre.
Wayne Carson, sometimes credited as Wayne Carson Thompson, was an American country musician, songwriter, and record producer. He played percussion, piano, guitar, and bass. His most famous songs as a writer include "The Letter", "Neon Rainbow", "Soul Deep", and "Always on My Mind".
On the Bandstand is an album by American country music artist Buck Owens, released in 1963. It peaked at Number 2 on the Billboard Country Albums charts.
"Neon Rainbow" is a song written by Wayne Carson Thompson and made famous by Memphis blue-eyed soul band The Box Tops.
William Alexander Chilton was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer best known as the lead singer of the Box Tops and Big Star. Chilton's early commercial success in the 1960s as a teen vocalist for the Box Tops was never repeated in later years with Big Star and in his subsequent indie music solo career on small labels, but he drew an intense following among indie and alternative rock musicians. He is frequently cited as a seminal influence by influential rock artists and bands, some of whose testimonials appeared in the 2012 documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me.
Not to be confused with Styx (band)
"I'm Your Puppet" is a song written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham; the best known version is the one recorded by James & Bobby Purify which reached #5 on the US R&B chart and #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. The single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1967. The song was featured on their 1967 album, James & Bobby Purify.
"Cry Like a Baby" is a 1968 song written by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, and performed by The Box Tops. The song reached No.2 in April 1968 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position it held for two weeks. It was kept out of the top spot by Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey", which stayed at No.1 for five weeks. "Cry Like a Baby" also reached No.2 on Cashbox for one week. It stayed on the Hot 100 for 15 weeks and Cashbox for 14 weeks. It was awarded a gold disc for selling over one million copies in the United States.
Cry Like a Baby is a 1968 album by the Box Tops. The title song was released as a single and reached #2 in April 1968 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, a position which it held for two weeks. It was kept out of the top spot by Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey".
Bach's Bottom is the second solo album by American pop rock musician Alex Chilton, released in 1981. Bach's Bottom was recorded in September and October 1975 at Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee.
Someday We'll All Be Free is the sixteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bobby Womack. The album was released in 1985, by Beverly Glen Music.
You Got What It Takes is the eleventh US album by the British band the Dave Clark Five, released in July 1967 by Epic Records. The album contained four successful songs, a cover of Marv Johnson's soul hit "You Got What It Takes", the hit single "I've Got to Have a Reason" written by the band's guitarist Lenny Davidson and the bubblegum "Tabatha Twitchit" written for the band by Les Reed and Barry Mason. The album also features the band's earlier UK top 30 hit "Thinking of You Baby". The LP reached the Billboard and Cashbox charts.
