“The Letter” by Box Tops

"The Letter" was the Box Tops' first single, a Wayne Carson song they recorded in 1967, and it went to number one in the United States and Canada, with top-10 showings in several other countries. They never had a bigger one, and it gave their 1967 album, The Letter / Neon Rainbow, the first half of its name.

The secret weapon is Alex Chilton, whose raspy blue-eyed soul delivery makes the whole thing sound lived-in, with Dan Penn producing. The song launched Chilton's career and has been widely covered, but it's the Box Tops original that Rolling Stone placed at No. 372 on its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame counts among the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll, and that went into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

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