Now we come to one of the shortest songs to ever hit number one. (That honor goes to “Stay” by Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs, coming in at one minute and 37 seconds.) Probably in second place at one minute and 58 seconds, “The Letter” is only number one by the Memphis, Tennessee group, The Box Tops. The song was written by Wayne Carson Thompson who got the idea from his father. One day, his father, who liked to write songs in his spare time, came to Thompson with just one line “Give me a ticket on an aeroplane.” That’s all he had, so son Wayne took the line and ran with it and wrote the hit “The Letter.” Thompson also wrote “Always On My Mind” which was one of Willie Nelson’s biggest hits.

The Box Tops started out as five friends who went to high school together in Memphis. Lead singer was Alex Chilton and he was just sixteen when they recorded their big hit. The other four were Gary Talley on guitar, William Cunningham on bass, Daniel Smythe on drums and John Evans on the keyboards. A disk jockey in Memphis found the group and introduced them to a record producer at American Recording Studios.

When the group went into the studio to record “The Letter,” they didn’t even have a name yet. One of the members suggested, “Let’s have a contest and everybody can send in fifty cents and a box top.” Dan Smythe, the drummer, said, “That’s it, let’s call ourselves the Box Tops and so the name was chosen and it held.

Once the recording was made, someone patched the sound of a jet onto the end of it. Thompson (and several others) didn’t like the recording, didn’t like the jet in the recording and didn’t think it should be released that way. Thompson was so upset about the whole thing that he left the country for a couple weeks to cool down. When he returned, the song was number one in the nation.

The Box Tops didn’t last long. They had a number two hit, “Cry Like a Baby” in 1968 but never hit the Top 10 again. The best they did was number 18 with “Soul Deep.” By 1970, the group had disbanded and everyone went their separate ways. The song did much better, it was recorded by the Arbors and hit number 20 in 1969 and Joe Cocker recorded his version which hit number seven in 1970.

“The Letter” (by the Box Tops) entered the pop chart on August 26, 1967 and stayed at the top for four weeks, becoming one of the biggest hits of the year.