Sunday February 20, 2022 “Cry Like a Baby” Box Tops
The Box Tops, formerly the DeVilles, crashed onto the charts in 1968 with their under two minutes, debut number one gem and often covered song “The Letter” fronted by the remarkably gritty vocals by then sixteen year old Alex Chilton.
“Cry Like a Baby” would be the Box Tops third single following their second top ten hit “Neon Rainbow”. It would make it to number two being kept out of the top spot by Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey”. Today’s song was written and produced by Dan Penn who had also written “I’m Your Puppet”, “Do Right Man” and “The Dark End of the Street” among many others.
Wondering what that unusual guitar sound is? It is Reggie Young playing an electric sitar, a sound that would be used by Joe South just a few months after “Cry Like a Baby” on his number one, Grammy winning song “Games People Play”.
The Box Tops would have some additional hits but would fall apart as Chilton more and more became the focal point of the group and as a result studio musicians were being used on their recordings. Chilton would go on to form Big Star which would become the band that inspired more groups than it sold records.
Unknown to many in the general music listening world except for his very distinctive “Box Tops” voice, Alex Chilton is a legend among musicians from The Replacements to Pearl Jam. Alex Chilton left us in 2010 at the young age of 59.
Stay safe and well…and enjoy this remarkable performance by a then seventeen year old singer.