The Letterby Box Tops

The Letter was a huge hit for The Box Tops in 1967, a band fronted by 16 year old singer Alex Chilton. There were quite a few covers over the next years including a killer version by Joe Cocker in 1970.

This lesson starts with the bass intro and strumming version as done by The Box Tops, but also covers the way we heard it on Joe Cocker's album Mad Dogs And Englishment. His version started with a piano riff played by Leon Russell, which translates pretty well to fingerstyle guitar, and includes a couple fills in Leon's style, as well as a power chord rendition of a horn riff at the end of each verse.

Lots of fun in this lesson!