The Letter (The Box Tops song)
| "The Letter" | ||||||||||
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| Single by The Box Tops | ||||||||||
| from the album The Letter/Neon Rainbow | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Happy Times" | |||||||||
| Released | August 1967 (U.S.) | |||||||||
| Format | 7" single | |||||||||
| Recorded | American Sound Studio | |||||||||
| Genre | Pop rock | |||||||||
| Length | 1:58 | |||||||||
| Label |
Mala Mala 565 Stateside/EMI (UK) |
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| Writer(s) | Wayne Carson Thompson | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Dan Penn | |||||||||
| The Box Tops singles chronology | ||||||||||
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| "The Letter" | ||
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| Single by Joe Cocker | ||
| from the album Mad Dogs and Englishmen | ||
| B-side | "Space Captain" | |
| Released | April 1970 | |
| Format | 7" single | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length |
4:46 (live album version) 4:11 (studio single version) |
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| Label | A&M | |
| Writer(s) | Wayne Carson Thompson | |
| Producer(s) | ||
| Music sample | ||
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32 second sample
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4:46 (live album version)
"The Letter" is a popular song, written and composed by Wayne Carson Thompson, which was a US #1 hit in 1967 for the Box Tops.
Wayne Carson (sometimes known as Wayne Carson Thompson) wrote and composed "The Letter" after his father, who performed as Shorty Thompson in country group the Tall Timber Trio, and also dabbled in songwriting, suggested the opening line, "Give me a ticket for an aeroplane." Carson wrote and composed the song, of which he then sent a demo tape to Chips Moman, who agreed to record the song with a new band.
The track was recorded at American Sound Studio in Memphis in a session produced by Dan Penn. Previously a musician and engineer at FAME Studios, Penn had been hired as production assistant by American Sound's owner, Chips Moman, whom Penn felt was shutting him out as a collaborator. Penn recalls: "Finally, I just told [Moman]...'Look, we can't produce together...I think I can produce records [alone]...But I do need somebody to cut. Give me the worst one you got.'" Moman suggested Penn record a local five-man outfit who had been pitched to him by disc jockey Roy Mack (Penn - "Chips was just graspin'. He'd never heard [the group]") and also passed on to Penn a demo tape of songs cut by his friend, Wayne Carson Thompson, which included "The Letter." Penn met with some of the members of the group--to which the name "The Box Tops" was eventually given-- "and told them to pick anything they wanted from this tape [by Thompson], but make sure that we do 'The Letter'" which Penn considered the one outstanding song.
The recording session for "The Letter," with Box Tops members Alex Chilton on vocals, Danny Smythe on drums, Russ Caccamisi on bass, John Evans on keyboards, and Richard Malone on guitar, began at 10 o'clock on a Saturday morning and took over thirty takes wrapping at either three or five o'clock that afternoon. Penn met Box Tops vocalist Chilton for the first time at the session: "I coached him a little...told him to say 'aer-o-plane,' told him to get a little gruff, and I didn't have to say anything else to him." (Composer Thompson, who says he played guitar at the session, was thrown by Chilton's vocal, having imagined the song being sung in a higher key.) Penn recalled: "[Chilton] picked it up exactly as I had in mind, maybe even better. I hadn't even paid any attention to how good he sang because I was busy trying to put the band together...I had a bunch of greenhorns who'd never cut a record, including me...I borrowed everything from Wayne Thompson's original demo - drums, bass, guitar. I added an organ with an 'I'm a Believer' lick." Penn added the sound of an airplane take-off to the track by recording it from a special effects record played in an office adjacent to the recording studio. When the track was previewed for Chips Moman, he suggested the take-off sounds be excised, to which Penn responded angrily: "Give me that razor blade right there--[and] I'll cut this damn tape up! The airplane stays on it, or we don't have a record."
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Wikipedia