In The Street

Mostly recognized as the theme for sitcom That '70s Show, "In The Street" was written by Big Star's primary songwriters, Chris Bell and Alex Chilton. For the show's first season, the song was performed by Todd Griffin, formerly guitarist and songwriter of The Graveyard Train. Griffin's cover was replaced in season 2 by the more widely known version recorded by Cheap Trick. The song is about life as a teenager in America, which in the 1970s meant driving around on weekends looking for fun, then doing it again the next week.

The song was released on Big Star's critically acclaimed debut album, but in our 2013 interview, their drummer Jody Stephens admitted, "I don't know if the general population even knows that Big Star had anything to do with it." Stephens played in a band called Golden Smog with Jeff Tweedy, and when Tweedy's band Wilco came to Memphis, Jody sat in with the group. "We played 'In The Street' together - I sat in on drums and Glenn Kotche played the cowbell part and John Stirratt sang lead," he recounts. "My wife was in the audience and she said when we started playing 'In The Street,' somebody sitting in back of her said, 'Why are they playing That '70s Show song?'"

In what he described as "ironic" in a 2000 Rolling Stone interview, Alex Chilton received $70 in royalty payments every time That '70s Show was broadcast.