The Letter

Momentum

This song has not appeared on a Rotation chart, so it has no score and no receipts. The rank history below is the ledger; a score is only published once the momentum run puts it on a chart.

Why it's here

Sixteen-year-old Alex Chilton's gruff, live vocal take on this song launched his career and became the Box Tops' first and biggest hit. [1] Producer Dan Penn insisted on overdubbing the sound of a jet airplane taking off onto the track over Chips Moman's objections, a sampling move later cited as a notable pop musique concrète flirtation. [2] The single sold more than a million copies, was RIAA certified gold, and was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. [3]

In culture

Every place this record has lived. A solid chip states a fact and carries the citation that earns it; a dashed one is a connection somebody drew, and carries their name instead.

• Covered Bachman–Turner Overdrivesource
• Covered Big Starsource
• Covered Chet Bakersource
• Covered Eva Cassidysource
• Covered Human Beingssource
• Covered Joe Cockersource
• Covered Martin Kolbesource
• Sampled by Milkman, Aeroplanesource
• Sampled by Milkman, Aeroplanesource
• Covered Pascal Comeladesource
• Covered Tedeschi Trucks Band and Leon Russellsource
• Covered The Beach Boyssource
• Covered The Castilessource
• Covered The Rascalssource
• Written by Wayne Carson Thompsonsource

Across markets · earliest pickup first

Every date here is the date the source chart covers, never the date we fetched it. Sources publish on different lags: the Spotify mirror runs about two days behind, TurnTable publishes weekly.

1. MarketFirst seenLatestDaysPeakRank path
2. Senegalsn · deezer2026-07-282026-07-31#1002#27
   #100
3. Saudi Arabiasa · deezer2026-09-012026-09-01#31#3
   —
4. Sloveniasi · deezer2026-09-272026-09-27#131#13
   —
5. Norwayno · shazam · 1 city2026-10-252026-10-30#126#12
   #12

City pickups

City charts record their parent country as the market, so these do not add to the market count above. One line per country: how many of its rooms picked the song up, and the best of them.

1. no 1 city · best #12 oslo

Listen

No official embed available for this song yet.

• Deezer ↗

Editions

No published edition carries this song yet. Every edition it appears in will be listed here and stay listed: an edition is immutable, so a citation to one never rots.