Chris Bell

Alex Chilton always got all the press about being the heart & brains of Big Star because he was Alex Chilton (just like it took a lot of people - me included - to realize Husker Du was as much Grant Hart as it was Bob Mould), but anyone with ears knows the ACTUAL genius behind the entire Big Star sound and its beyond brilliant first album is Chris Bell (and that's why the second Big Star album, recorded after Bell left the band, is garbage compared to the first one). Unlike Chilton he was a quiet, vulnerable guy who sadly became a member of the rock & roll 27 club in a car accident, but today would've been his 73rd birthday which is as good excuse as any to be sad about all the great music we lost when he died while being grateful we got what we did from him.