The name of the band ended up being one of the worst ironies in music history, because when #1 Record came out the band were anything but a "Big Star". It's unbelievable that #1 Record wasn't more popular, but then again this was around the same time that Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were ruling the rock airwaves along with James Taylor. The band in between couldn't fit in for either side, but if they had come out just five years earlier during the heyday of the British Invasion they would've been giants.

There are many highlights on the album, with Chris Bell and Alex Chilton being an amazing songwriting team.

1. "Feel" is the perfect album opener, epic in scope.
2. "Ballad of El Goodo" is a ballad, one of the first that starts to bring tears to your eyes.
3. "In The Street" was made famous by being the theme song for That 70s show, which may be the greatest accomplishment for the show, as the show introduced people to a great band they had never heard before.
4. "Thirteen" is on Rolling Stone's list of greatest songs of all time, and beautiful.
5. "Don't Lie To Me": More of a rocker, and while it is alright, The Raspberries (Another band you should check out) give this song competition.
6. "India Song": Alright but one I usually skip over.
7. "When My Baby's Beside Me": Pure classic.
8. "My Life Is Right": A ballad that doesn't reach as high as the others.
9. "Give Me Another Chance": Powerful.
10. "Try Again": While "Give Me Another Chance" brings you half the way there, "Try Again" completes it.
11. "Watch The Sunrise": A long instrumental before a song that is nice but not as good as the two before.
12. "St 100/6": Almost like "Because" by The Beatles, but with an acoustic guitar in the background.

"Radio City" was clearly made after the band was abandoned, and the absence of Chris Bell is visible at points.
1. "O My Soul": Okay, but not great. "Feel" it is not.
2. "Life Is White": Rocks in the best way possible, slow but with strength.
3. "Way Out West": The band has the same British Invasion flavors, but this song shows a voice evolving. Great song by the bassist Andy Hummel who wrote "India Song" on the #1 Record, definitely better and one of my favorites on Radio City.
4. "What's Going Ahn": Similar to the ballads on #1 Record, but different with a great repeating guitar line.
5. "You Get What You Deserve": Won't make you cry, instead is a beautiful frustration filled song that rocks, Lennon would be proud.
6. "Mod Lang": Instead of Beatles here there is a Stones influence, heaviest song on the album.
7. "Back Of A Car": Genius.
8. "Daisy Glaze": Could easily be a later period Beatles song, can almost see a haze rising up. Then the song picks up like one of the best multipart Beatles songs.
9. "She's A Mover": The Beatles theme continues, reminds me of "Taxman" at the beginning.
10. "September Gurls": If you haven't heard this song before, you'll be blown away. If you have, you'll look forward to hearing it again.
11. "Morpha Too": A piano song for the first time on the record, another slow ballad with great harmonies.
12. "I'm In Love With A Girl": The perfect closer, acoustic and longing like many of the songs on #1 Record.

Great albums that anyone should own, too bad more people don't.

2 historically important records for the price of one! Some great stuff
here and some truly mediocre junk too. You can see the potential in these
guys and its too bad Chris Bell died young and their record label was a
bumbling bunch of idiots. Some "American Idol" clown should adopt some of these songs - they would sound as good today as they did 35 years ago.
This CD comes with a lengthy insert that is worth it just for the history
lesson. For further reading check out the internet article titled "The
Sad Life & Death of Chris Bell" - very poignant and well-written.

O my soul, my life is right, when my baby's beside me........

No, no, no, scratch that; massive disappointment.

This is like listening to a garage band, with minimal talent, trying to cover songs by the Zombies and the Beatles, but unable to convey a sense of memorable melody &, at least in terms of The Zombies, stellar lyrics. And this man's voice, my god, this voice is on par with James Taylor in terms of it's degree of nerve clawing.

Elliott Smith covered them, and for some reason they're cited as being insanely influential; HOW? This is nothing new, not even for it's time, not even close to be remotely original, and more importantly, not even close to being important.

Give it up, geezers, it's just nostalgia calling when you claim this as the greatest rock album of all time.

What I mean is, I have listened to the entire disc twice in the week or so that I've had the disc. But I've played #1 Record over and over too many times to count, it's OUTSTANDING, way better than I expected even after hearing about Big Star for years. It's excellent power pop.

I came around to Big Star through Chris Bell's only CD, I Am The Cosmos. That record made me a fan of Chris Bell. The only other thing he recorded was #1 Record. Those 2 discs are not enough of a legacy, there's no telling what kind of impact on music Bell could have had if things had gone better.

#1 Record by itself makes this compilation essential. But Radio City is also strong, with several excellent tracks. (And for the record, Bell did help write 2 songs on that one - O My Soul and Back Of A Car.) If you think you might like this after hearing the samples...don't worry. You will. This is about as great a CD of its kind as you could hope for.

How come I never heard of these guys? Well, my father did me a huge service in getting this double album for me for Father's Day (I'm that old to have kids of my own) a few months back. He said, "give it a listen, let it swirl around a few days, give it another listen, and I guarantee you you'll not be able to stop". Well, he was right. He also just sent me Sisters & Lovers the other day as a follow up saying that I was "ready" for Big Star's final masterpiece. As a testament to how cool this album is, my wife, who's rediculously picky about what she listens to, is right alongside me in proclaiming its perfection.