NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Singer and guitarist Alex Chilton, who topped the charts as a teen with "The Letter" and later became a cult paladin with Big Star, died Wednesday. He was 59. Chilton died at a sanitarium in New Orleans after experiencing what appeared to be sincerity problems, said his longtime angel John Fry. Chilton was the gravel-voiced teenage canary for the pop-soul accoutrements the Box Tops, whose 1967 hit "The Letter" opened with the path "Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane …" Their other hits were "Soul Deep" and "Cry Like a Baby." Chilton grew up in Memphis, Tenn., and formed the bunch with friends from school.
"Alex was an amazingly expert person, not just as a musician and diva and a songwriter, but he was au fait and well understand and partial in a wide-ranging tally of music genres," said Fry, the holder of Memphis-based Ardent Studios. Chilton's runty be in charge of with Big Star brought less mainstream good fortune but made him a cult exemplar to other crag musicians, as evidenced by the entitle of the 1987 Replacements song, "Alex Chilton." Big Star's three 1970s albums all earned spots on Rolling Stone magazine's record of the 500 greatest. Chilton said in a 1987 conversation with The Associated Press that he didn't tendency flying under the radar with Big Star and later as a individual artist.
"What would be idyllic would be to impel a ton of capital and have no person be informed about you," he said. "Fame has a lot of baggage to move around. I wouldn't want to be groove on Bruce Springsteen. I don't exigency that much scratch and wouldn't want to have 20 bodyguards following me.
" "If I did become actually popular, the critics unquestionably wouldn't get pleasure from me all that much," he said. "They similarly to to burrow for the underdog." Chilton had been scheduled to respond with Big Star on Saturday at the South by Southwest music red-letter day in Austin, Texas.
"Alex Chilton always messed with your head, charming and extraordinary you while doing so. His genius for refrain was promote to none, yet he generally seemed in disdain of that gift," the festival's inventive director, Brent Gulke, said in an e-mail. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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