“O My Soul” by Big Star

Big Star's Radio City came out in 1974, and "O My Soul" was among the first songs written for it, left over from when Alex Chilton and Chris Bell were still working side by side. When Bell quit the band, the two divided up their shared songs and this one went to Chilton. By his account Bell helped with the words but the music was all his; once the record was out, Bell asked to be added to the credit and was turned down.

Chilton first cut it without the band, with Richard Rosebrough drumming and Danny Jones on bass. Big Star then took two runs at it: the keeper has Chilton on guitar and Mellotron and Jody Stephens drumming and singing with him, and Andy Hummel remembered his bass going on later as an overdub. It struts, loose and wiry, and it came out as a single too.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.