The Box Tops

At first blush, the Box Tops are little different from dozens of other bands that scored a handful of pop hits in the 1960s, but these Memphis teens had considerably more talent at their disposal than most. Most notably, they had a young Alex Chilton as their lead singer; the future cult hero's gruffly powerful vocals turned hit singles like "The Letter" and "Cry Like A Baby" into timeless blue-eyed soul classics even in the face of dated period touches like the latter's twangling electric sitar leads. Just as importantly, the group's producers and songwriters (Dan Penn and Wayne Carson Thompson on the early hits, Chips Moman and Tommy Cogbill on later singles like the bizarre paean to prostitution "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March") provided the young band with quality material; their deep Memphis roots kept the Box Tops from venturing too far into cheap psychedelic knockoffs or Monkees-style bubblegum. Though the famously acerbic Chilton often disparaged the Box Tops during his far more idiosyncratic solo career -- repeatedly claiming that his distinctive vocals were simply an imitation of Penn's gutbucket growl -- he regularly participated in Box Tops reunion tours from the mid-'90s until his death.