Don_Krider's Full Review: The Best of the Box Tops: Soul Deep by The Box Top...
"Give me a ticket for an aeroplane / ain't got time to take a fast train / lonely days are gone / I'm a goin' home / my baby just wrote me a letter..."
It's hard to believe Alex Chilton was all of 16 when he sang "The Letter" as lead singer of The Box Tops with a gravelly, husky, soulful voice that seemed so much older than his actual years.
Chilton, who continues to record and tour, would later establish himself as an influential artist in the '70s as leader of the short-lived Big Star.
But in 1967, Alex was just the teen-aged lead vocalist for The Box Tops. It's truly amazing to hear the maturity in his vocals at such a young age, and hear it you will on the CD "The Best Of The Box Tops: Soul Deep".
The Box Tops
The Box Tops came out of Memphis in 1967 with a sound that both explored the possibilities of rhythm and blues while mixing the sound with straight forward rock 'n' roll. Chilton's voice was flexible, capable of sounding Eric Burdon-husky (as on "The Letter") or sweetly innocent (as on "Neon Rainbow").
"The Letter" went straight to # 1 in 1967, spending four weeks in the top spot in the U. S. It was quickly followed up the charts by "Neon Rainbow", which reached # 24.
In 1968, the band had its first (and only) million-selling single with "Cry Like A Baby", which rose to # 2 for two weeks ("...when I think about the good love you gave me / I cry like a baby / livin' without you is drivin' me crazy / I cry like a baby..."). Kind of a cross between the Memphis rhythm and blues of "The Letter" and classic gospel music.
The band was abused like many a band at the hands of producers and record labels --- the more popular they got, the more likely they were to lose control in the studio. Chilton has said that the band's music on record was mostly him singing lead supported by studio musicians, rather than the band (in fact, with one other exception, Chilton was the only band member to appear on the studio recordings made after "The Letter").
For a budding songwriter like Chilton, it was also somewhat discouraging, I imagine, to be told to sing songs written by people not even in the band. Many of the songs were written by Wayne Carson Thompson (including "The Letter", "Neon Rainbow" and "Soul Deep") or by the team of Dan Penn, producer of the records, and Spooner Oldham (Penn and Oldham wrote such soul classics as "I'm Your Puppet" and "Dark End Of The Street" in addition to Box Tops tunes like "Cry Like A Baby" and "I Met Her In Church").
The band charted with 10 Hot 100 singles between 1967-70.
In 1968, following the Top 10 success of "Cry Like A Baby" as the year began, the group scored three additional Top 40 hits with "Choo Choo Train" (# 26), "I Met Her In Church" (# 37) and "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March" (# 28; which remained on the charts into 1969).
Their cover version of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" (# 67) became their first non-Top 40 hit in 1969. They moved back into the Top 40 with "Soul Deep" (# 18) by late summer of that same year ("...my love is a river running soul deep / way down inside me it's soul deep...").
"Soul Deep" was the band's last trip into the Top 40. The next two singles quickly died on the charts ("Turn On A Dream" peaked at # 58 and "You Keep Turning Up On Me" stiffed at # 92).
Although the group did place four albums on the chart, none made the national Top 40 Album chart in Billboard. Though Chilton had his greatest chart success with The Box Tops, he is today may be best remembered for his work with the power pop band Big Star, though Big Star never charted with any single or album according to Billboard magazine.
Fans of Chilton's later work will be glad that some of his early compositions with The Box Tops are on this compilation: "I Must Be The Devil", "Together", "The Happy Song" and "I See Only Sunshine".
The CD booklet
The 8-page CD booklet is informative, but very lacking in the illustration department (a single, small shot of each band member; no group photos).
The tracks
"The Best Of The Box Tops: Soul Deep" features 18 tracks:
"The Letter", "Neon Rainbow", "Happy Times", "Cry Like A Baby", "Fields Of Clover", "Choo Choo Train", "She Shot A Hole In My Soul", "People Gonna Talk", "I Met Her In Church", "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March", "Together", "I Must Be The Devil", "Soul Deep", "I Shall Be Released", "The Happy Song", "Turn On A Dream", "I See Only Sunshine" and "You Keep Tightening Up On Me".
The 18-tracks have a total running time of just under 50 minutes. The recordings benefit from 20 bit digital mastering done from the original master tapes.
You might also like
The Box Tops shared the stage with the reunited Rasperries in 2005, so you might enjoy the 2007 Rykodisc release by Raspberries, Live On Sunset Strip, which includes the million-seller "Go All The Way" and all five of Raspberries' Cashbox Top 40 singles among its 21 tracks on two CDs (with a 5-song DVD also included) in the Deluxe Edition of the album (with liner notes by Bruce Springsteen): http://www.epinions.com/content_393207123588
For the trivia buffs
A friend asked me to compare the chart data for Billboard (used in my review above) with the chart data from Billboard's competitors Cash Box and Record World. The results are interesting and I'll share the data here, if only for the die-hard Box Tops' fans:
"The Letter" (1967): #1 (for four weeks) in Billboard, #1 (for three weeks) in Cashbox and #1 (for four weeks) in Record World.
"Neon Rainbow" (1967): #24 in Billboard, #24 in Cashbox and #16 in Record World.
"Cry Like A Baby" (1968): #2 (for two weeks) in Billboard, #2 in Cashbox and #2 in Record World.
"Choo Choo Chain" (1968): #26 in Billboard, #17 in Cashbox and #17 in Record World.
"I Met Her In Church" (1968): #37 in Billboard, #41 in Cashbox and #29 in Record World.
"Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March" (1968-69): #28 in Billboard, #29 in Cashbox and #17 in Record World.
"I Shall Be Released" (1969): #67 in Billboard, #72 in Cashbox and #75 in Record World.
"Soul Deep" (1969): #18 in Billboard, #13 in Cashbox and #11 in Record World.
"Turn On A Dream" (1969): #58 in Billboard, #36 (for two weeks) in Cashbox and #31 in Record World.
"You Keep Tightening Up On Me" (1970): #92 in Billboard, #74 in Cashbox and #70 in Record World.
Sources for the chart data information: my personal files, Joel Whitburn's "Top Pop" books (Billboard info), a fan-based Cashbox website at http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/randypny/cashbox/index.html and a fan-based Record World website at http://www.geocities.com/muggy59/index.html .
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
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