“The EMI Song (Smile For Me)”
Alex Chilton
In 1970 Alex Chilton was twenty and recently freed from The Box Tops. His time in the group resulted in massive hits, their first single ‘The Letter’ rocketed to #1 in 1967 and was named Billboard magazine’s number single of the year but little creative freedom as the direction of the group was determined by its producers Chips Moman and Dan Penn who were eager to capitalize on and duplicate that first success. After the dissolution of the group Chilton went to Greenwich Village for a time but ultimately returned to Memphis where he holed up in Ardent Studios, able now to record his own songs on his own terms. Those sessions resulted in an albums worth of material, including “The EMI Song (Smile For Me)” that was never officially released. Chilton went on to form Big Star with Chris Bell and those songs, many which served as harbinger of the Big Star sound were for many years only available on bootlegs. Ardent released a portion as the now out of print 1970, but you can hear the entire session, including demos on the new release Free Again: The “1970” Sessions.
