Artist: Box Tops
Author: Dan Penn/Spooner Oldham
Label: Mala
Year: 1968

Written as I Met HIM In Church for a gospel session with The Sweet Inspirations, vocal quartet with Cissy Houston (Whitney's mother) and backing choir for Aretha and Elvis. Penn & Oldham had also written Sweet Inspiration for The Sweet Inspirations, so this was supposed to crown their staff-writing status. Alas, couple of days before the session, Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered downtown and the girls refused to set foot in Memphis ever again. That's when supersubs The Box Tops were cranked, kinda puppets producer Dan Penn could manipulate to his own image. Hot property since The Letter and Cry Like A Baby and not particularly gospel-minded. Still, Dan managed to squeeze anything out of lead singer Alex Chilton. He would come out, coach him and sing to him. Listening to Alex, it sounds like Dan Penn singing, really. The most gospely thing they did was I Met Her In Church and that was Dan's production, highlight of his whole career if you asked Alex. Dan made him do that song line by line and one line at the time for 7 or 8 hours to get the voice that way and it just sounds really like Dan on there.