After leaving The Box Tops and attempting a solo career in New York, Alex Chilton returned home to Memphis and fell in with local musicians Chris Bell, Andy Hummel, and Jody Stephens. Naming themselves after a local supermarket chain, Big Star recorded two self-assured power pop stunners, #1 Record and (following Bell's departure) Radio City; Chilton and Stephens then recorded the darker Third, belatedly released in 1978. After bands from the Bangles to This Mortal Coil recorded Big Star covers, their albums were rediscovered by a passionate new generation of indie fans.