My Top 1000 Songs #812: You And Your Sister

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Big Star co-founder Chris Bell, who departed after the band's debut and left the band in Alex Chilton's hands, tragically only managed to release one single before his untimely passing in 1978. The a-side, "I Am The Cosmos," has already made its appearance here. But the b-side, "You And Your Sister," is at least as great, a gorgeous acoustic ballad that stands as the great lost Big Star track, with Chilton providing background vocals, making for a simply stunning duet.

The 1978 single was a non-entity at the time of release, but both sides ultimately surfaced on a wonderful 1992 collection of Bell recordings, also entitled I Am The Cosmos. Beyond appearing in several other iterations on subsequent Cosmos reissues, "You And Your Sister" has been covered a few times, most notably by Breeders colleagues Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly (as part of a 1991 This Mortal Coil collaboration), and more recently on a 2021 Susanna Hoffs covers album.

This Mortal Coil feat. Kim Deal & Tanya Donelly:

Susanna Hoffs live:

Incidentally--jangle pop band Vulgar Boatmen have a song of the same name which is not a cover. But it's a great tune as well, and as long as we're here...