My Top 2000 Songs #1111: The EMI Song (Smile For Me)

Between his AM-dial 60s success as the teen singer of the Box Tops, and his early 70s formation of the legendary Big Star with Chris Bell, Alex Chilton spent time kicking around his hometown of Memphis, where he recorded a few songs for a potential solo career. These sat in the can for years, eventually making their way out on various compilations (most recently on Free Again: The 1970 Sessions). They're perfectly fine, mostly enjoyable if unremarkable pop and R&B-flavored songs, a helpful way for Chilton (mostly just a hired vocalist on the Box Tops records) to start honing the songwriting chops that would bloom with Big Star.

My favorite song from this brief in-between era is "The EMI Song (Smile For Me)." It's not a great song by any means (at least by Big Star standards), a little cheesy, but there's something inherently sweet and guileless in its gentle pop, a very-early-70s sounding ballad that calls to mind what Todd Rundgren was up to at the time. (At least when Rundgren was in Carole King/Laura Nyro mode.) While I didn't hear this until years after the fact, having already become a lover of all things Big Star, it still feels like something I can almost remember hearing as a kid, a warm, nostalgic vibe that washes away all cynicism. Which is particularly interesting from a guy who took on such an edge later on.

Incredible cover, Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan at a 2021 Big Star tribute show, with orchestra: