Single:
The Letter entered the Australian singles chart* on 18 September 1967 and peaked at #4. The song was #24 on the Top 100 of 1967.
Songwriter:
Wayne Carson
Producer:
Dan Penn
Record label of Australian release:
Stateside
*Kent Music Report / Australian Chart Book. See About.
Songfacts:
The Letter is about a guy who gets a letter from his former love telling him that she wants him back, and the guy wants to fly out and see her immediately. The Nashville songwriter Wayne Carson Thompson wrote the song after his father gave him the line, “Give me a ticket for an aeroplane.”
Thompson gave the song to The Box Tops on the recommendation of his friend, Chips Moman, who ran ARS Studios and liked the sound of an unnamed band headed by then-16-year-old Alex Chilton, who auditioned for him in 1967.
When the group recorded this they still did not have a name. One band member suggested, “Let’s have a contest and everybody can send in 50 cents and a box top.” Producer Dan Penn then dubbed them The Box Tops.
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/the-box-tops/the-letter
Lyrics:
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane
Ain’t got time to take a fast train
Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home
My baby, just a wrote me a letter
Click for full lyrics
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 60s
Also on Bang a Gong: The Letter by Joe Cocker
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