Quote Originally Posted by Smokey
I have never heard of any songs from Big Star, but historically R.E.M. probabaly owed the biggest gratitude to The Byrds which also had a big influenced on Big Star. One can clearly hear the Byrds guitar work signature, especilly on R.E.M's first album Murmur.
...that R.E.M. credits Chilton and Big Star as a 'major influence'. He was only 16 when he led the Boxtops and they had three major hits. After Big Star, he moved to NYC and played with Chris Stamey (the dbs), and Richard Lloyd, among others, produced for The Cramps, moving from his power pop phase into punk.

He's done so much more that I have time to type, but you can check Wikipedia yourself and see what I mean. This guy was huge in the music industry. Not for selling records, but for being a creative genius who will not be forgotten anytime soon.