12 Reasons Alex Chilton Was Cool

Alex Chilton, leader of seminal rock bands The Box Tops and Big Star, has died.

Chilton, 59, passed away Wednesday in New Orleans of a suspected heart attack.

Rather than dwell on the tragedy of the singer, songwriter and guitarist's passing, and the sad, gaping hole it will leave in modern music, we here at CHARTattack would prefer to celebrate a few of the many, many things that made Chilton a cult hero and a power pop icon.

Here, then, are 12 reasons why Alex Chilton was cool:

1. It's almost impossible to overestimate the influence Chilton has had on indie rock and alternative music. Chances are almost every power pop band you love and every jangly guitar riff you've ever rocked out to owe at least a tiny bit of their heart and soul to Big Star.

2. Chilton was only 16 years old when he seduced the world with his trademark raspy but melodic — and thoroughly adult — voice on Box Tops tracks like "The Letter" and "Neon Rainbow." Take that, Justin Bieber.

3. Far from being a faded teen idol, Chilton was still a vital and relevant part of the music world at 59. At the time of his death, he was preparing to play Austin, Texas' South By Southwest Music Festival with Big Star.

4. The Replacements loved him so much that they wrote a near-perfect jangly pop song laden with handclaps and they named it after him.

5. Big Star were critically acclaimed in their (original) day, but never experienced much commercial success when albums #1 Record, Radio City and Third/Sister Lovers were released. The quality of their music was to good to deny, though, and word of mouth eventually helped to make the band cult heroes and the inspiration for a whole new generation of musicians. It's a story that gives hope to struggling critical successes everywhere.

6. Growing interest in the band inspired Chilton to reform Big Star with original drummer Jody Stephens in 1993. As if that didn't fulfill enough music nerd fantasies, he went on to include Posies members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow in the group. He continued to play with that lineup right up until the end.

7. A whole new audience of fans was introduced to Big Star when the Chilton-penned "In The Street" was covered by Cheap Trick for the theme of That '70s Show. In light of the current careers of Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace, it remains the one truly great thing that sitcom had to offer this world.

8. Cheap Trick weren't the only band who felt the urge to cover Big Star. Big Star: Small World, a tribute album featuring artists like Teenage Fanclub, Matthew Sweet and Wilco was released in 2006. Artists like Bats For Lashes, Elliott Smith, Beck, Placebo and Jeff Buckley have tackled Big Star tunes over the years.

9. Chilton had a bit of a reputation for being mercurial (it's the first thing The New York Times says about him in his obituary), but The Commercial Appeal from his home town of Memphis reports that there was another, more generous and warm side to the man as well. "He was the only person on a record I've ever worked with where you'd come up with a horn arrangement, and he'd say, 'Look, I'm going to make you guys a co-writer on the song now,'" sax player Jim Spake (who played on the last Big Star record) told the paper.

10. The NME recently named him the #2 cult artist of all time.

11. Chilton was intrinsically linked to some of the greatest people and places in the history of rock 'n' roll. Spooner Oldham wrote songs for The Box Tops, Chilton worked with The Cramps (?!) and R.E.M. consider him a massive influence.

12. He made such an impression on me as a teenager that I made a Big Star Christmas ornament in welding class in high school and tried to write a whole novel about a Big Star tribute band (the lead singer's name was actually Chilton).