10 Perfect Power Pop Albums With No Bad Songs

There are probably a few people just looking at the name of this record and scoffing at it. Since Big Star never exactly set the world on fire or anything, it seems pretty pretentious naming your first album #1 Record. Although it never made it to the top of the mainstream charts, these are the kind of songs that you never realize are classics until you take the deep dive.

Being one of the first true power pop records, both Chris Bell and Alex Chilton have a great back and forth as songwriters, singing about the typical teen romance tropes that made the greatest power pop work. Even for a debut record though, the band was still pretty ambitious, like the Ballad of El Goodo sounding like something that Paul McCartney would have come up with. This is also one of those few times that you don't know the song by name but more in practice, with In the Street eventually being recontextualized to be the opening theme song to That '70s Show.

And since they were never able to get too big, this is the kind of record that has become a staple in the indie community as well, with The Replacements even namechecking them in the song Alex Chilton a few years down the road. Their story might not have taken them that far, but #1 Record is still one of the greatest records that most of the world hasn't heard of.