Big Star

This account traces how Big Star came together, made its music, and eventually fell apart. For many listeners, the group captured the spirit of the 1970s. The band lasted under four years and sold only modestly, yet its three albums have shaped musicians as varied as R.E.M., the Bangles, Wilco, Jeff Buckley, and Garbage. Cheap Trick's re-recording of "In the Street" later served as the theme for That '70s Show. Post-punk fans treated the group's songs and its sense of romance as something close to sacred.

The book follows bandleader Alex Chilton, who poured himself into the music convinced that fame was coming. When it did not arrive, he took part in a puzzling pattern of self-sabotage. It also tells the sad story of Chris Bell, Chilton's co-leader on the first record. After leaving the group, Bell recorded "I Am the Cosmos," a haunting song about young love, and died in a car crash only months later.

Drawing on new interviews with the band, relatives, friends, and the key figures at Ardent Studios in Memphis, the author assembles a full picture of the group's history.