Seminal Power Pop From Big Star

B ig Star.

If the name of that early-’70s Memphis band doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t feel too guilty.

The group’s first two albums, 1972’s “1 Record” and 1974’s “Radio City,” never even made the Billboard magazine weekly Top 200 sales charts--and its third, 1974’s “3rd,” sat on the shelf for more than three years before it was even issued.

So why is the CD release of “3rd”--now retitled “Third/Sister Lovers”--one of the most welcome developments of the young year in pop?

Despite its lack of commercial success and its relative obscurity, Big Star played a major role in the evolution of “power pop,” the sound that combines the tuneful qualities of Beatlesque pop-rock and the darker introspection of such artists as John Lennon and Lou Reed.

As such, the band’s music has been championed by a variety of substantial bands, from the Replacements and R.E.M. in the ‘80s to a promising new crop that ranges from England’s Primal Scream (which headlines the Hollywood Palladium on Saturday) to Scotland’s Teenage Fanclub.

While the first two Big Star albums have been available in a single CD on German Line Records, the third--and arguably the most compelling--has just been re-released in this country in CD by Rykodisc, along with two previously unreleased Big Star-related collections: a live album from 1974 and a solo album by singer-songwriter Chris Bell, who left the band after its first album.

In many ways, it’s easy to think of “Third/Sister Lovers” as a solo album by singer-songwriter Alex Chilton. Chilton, who sang lead on such classic Box Tops hits as “The Letter” and “Cry Like a Baby” while he was still in his teens, took over the leadership reins of Big Star after Bell left and wrote almost all of the third album.

Chilton has made lots of albums on his own since, but the final Big Star studio package, with its remarkable blend of innocence and disillusionment, best summarizes the personal vision that was so influential on the development of such writers as the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg, who even titled one of his songs “Alex Chilton.”

Besides the 15 tracks from the original album, “Third/Sister Lovers” also features four bonus tracks, including the band’s versions of old hits by Jerry Lee Lewis (“Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On”) and Nat King Cole (“Nature Boy”).

There was such a heavy sense of despair in the album--a mood attributed over the years to Chilton’s career frustrations and various personal problems--that the work has long been viewed as one of rock’s most stark journeys into the psyche. Yet the tension and sense of individual struggle in the album fit comfortably in the tradition of much of the finest--and most liberating--rock.

The live album, which was recorded during a radio station broadcast, features songs from the first two albums as well as a version of Loudon Wainwright III’s “Motel Blues.” The Bell album, titled “I Am the Cosmos,” is not as significant as “Third/Sister Lovers,” but it is a fascinating project because the singer-songwriter’s obsession with the spirit of the Beatles seems so complete that he all but turns himself over completely to that spirit.