Rear-View Mirror: Big Star, "September Gurls" and the birth of power pop

Every week, Rich Terfry looks back in our Rear-view Mirror at a great song from the good ol’ days. This week, Big Star and "September Gurls."

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Listen to the audio version of Rear-View Mirror by hitting the Play button.

Brian Wilson once sang the words, "I just wasn't made for these times." The same could be said about some of the most influential bands in rock and roll history. Take for example The Velvet Underground.

They released revolutionary and critically acclaimed albums in the late '60s. Those recordings made a huge impact that is perhaps being felt more strongly today than ever. But at the time, the band was a complete commercial failure. Another band that fits into that category is Big Star.

Big Star songwriter and frontman Alex Chilton enjoyed the biggest success of his career in his days before Big Star. He was the vocalist for The Box Tops who had a huge number one hit in 1967 with "The Letter." He was 16 years old at the time.

He formed Big Star in 1971. The band fused the melodic sensibilities of bands like The Beatles, The Kinks and The Beach Boys, the raw power of The Who and the harmonies of The Byrds.

The result was a sound that became the blueprint for power-pop. Critics loved it, but the band was just too far ahead of its time. Their albums didn't catch on with the public at the time and the industry didn't seem to know what to do with them. After three years and three albums, the band broke up.

But two decades later, music lovers began to catch on. Big bands like Teenage Fanclub, Primal Scream and REM cited Big Star as a major influence.

They inspired countless others and their three albums are now widely regarded as masterpieces. Rolling Stone magazine listed their song "September Gurls" from their second album, Radio City, as one of the greatest songs of all time.

Writer John Borack described the song as "a glorious, glittering jewel with every facet cut and shined to absolute perfection ... a peerless, aching distillation of love and longing. "September Gurls" may not actually be the greatest song ever recorded, but for the duration of its 2:47 running time, you can be forgiven for believing it is."

Here's Big Star's power-pop masterpiece. This is "September Gurls."

Here are some other great editions of Rear-view Mirror:

The Hollies "Bus Stop"

Joy Division "Love Will Tear Us Apart"

Booker T and the MGs "Green Onions"

Jimi Hendrix "Hey Joe"

Neil Young "Rockin' in the Free World"

Dolly Parton "Jolene"

The Left Banke "Walk Away Renee"

Lou Reed "Walk On The Wild Side"

James Taylor "Fire And Rain"

The Clash "Should I Stay or Should I Go"

Marvin Gaye "Sexual Healing"

Radiohead "Paranoid Android"

M.I.A. "Paper Planes"

The Animals "We Gotta Get Out of this Place"

Dusty Springfield "Son of a Preacher Man"

Screamin' Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You"

Cheap Trick "Surrender"

Mott The Hoople "All the Young Dudes"

Beach Boys "Sloop John B"

Amy Winehouse "Rehab"

New York Dolls "Personality Crisis"

Modern Lovers "Roadrunner"

George Jones "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Bruce Springsteen "Born in the USA"

The Beatles "With A Little Help From My Friends"

Rolling Stones 'Miss You'

The Coasters 'Run Red Run'

Elvis Costello, 'Alison'

James Brown, 'Hot (I Need to be loved loved loved)'

Inner Circle, 'Tenement Yard'

Ray Charles, 'I Don't Need No Doctor'

Curtis Mayfield, 'Freddy's Dead'

Gang Starr, 'Beyond Comprehension'

Bo Diddley, 'Bo Diddley'

Aretha Franklin, 'Rocksteady'

CCR, 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain'

Howlin' Wolf, 'Smokestack Lightning'

Bobby Womack, 'Across 110th Street'

Roy Orbison, 'In Dreams'

Foggy Hogtown Boys, 'Man of Constant Sorrow'

Pink Floyd, 'Wish You Were Here'

Neil Young, 'Cortez The Killer'

Bob Dylan, 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'

Little Eva, 'Loco-Motion'

Elvis Costello, 'Watching the Detectives'

Jimmy Cliff, 'The Harder They Come'

The Verve, 'Bittersweet Symphony'

Roberta Flack, 'Killing Me Softly with his Song'

R.E.M., 'Radio Free Europe'

Radiohead, 'No Surprises'

Led Zeppelin, 'Ramble On'

Glen Campbell, 'Wichita Lineman'

John Cougar Mellencamp, 'Pink Houses'

Rolling Stones, 'Beast of Burden'