Big Star

If the short-lived but fondly remembered Big Star could have experienced popular success in direct proportion to its posthumous influence, the rangy Memphis rock quartet would have lived up to its ambitious name, and then some. With the possible exception of the Velvet Underground (which enjoyed considerably more notoriety in its heyday), no other underground pop band has left such a lasting and indelible legacy. Although its original four members recorded only one album, #1 Record, and the group was dissolving rapidly when the second, Radio City, was completed, those records have influenced countless ‘80s and ‘90s rockers on both sides of the Atlantic, from the Replacements and REM to England’s Primal Scream and Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub.