In 1967, a teenage Alex Chilton recorded a song that would hit the top of the charts with his band The Box Tops, and at the time, it made him a young music icon. The hit, entitled “The Letter,” climbed the Billboard Hot 100, making it all the way to No. 1 on Sept. 23, 1967.
It wasn’t short-lived either, as the tune remained a chart-topper for four weeks. And the fact that Chilton, with his soulful, bluesy tone, was just a young one at the time, isn’t the only interesting thing about it; in fact, it’s one of the shortest No. 1 hits ever, with a runtime of just one minute and 58 seconds.
Written by Wayne Carson after his father suggested the opening line, it was first recorded by the rock band, but its success inspired several other covers. It became The Box Tops’ first and most successful single, reaching No. 1 in both the United States and Canada, while also seeing international success and placing in the Top Ten in several other countries.
In 2015-published book A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man, Chilton recalled the track being recorded with little to no rehearsal. “We set up and started running the tune down … [Dan] adjusted a few things on the organ sound, told the drummer not to do anything at all except the basic rhythm that was called for. No rolls, no nothin’. The bass player was playing pretty hot stuff, so he didn’t mess with what the bass player was doing,” he said.
The track tells the story of a man who gets an urgent message from a former love asking him to come home ASAP. She can’t live without him, and obviously, he doesn’t want to be without her either, so he books an airplane ticket to get back to his lady.
“Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane / Ain’t got time to take a fast train / Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home / My baby, just a wrote me a letter / I don’t care how much money I gotta spend / Got to get back to my baby again,” the vocalist expresses on the song, per Genius.
Today, the ’60s hit remains a timeless anthem. It was included on Rolling Stone‘s list of the Greatest Songs of All Time and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011. Additionally, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame added it to the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.
Related: 1969 Timeless Hit, Written ‘Quickly’ in Between Studio Takes, Turned a 20-Year-Old Into a Rock Icon
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