Musos' man: Alex Chilton on stage in 1981 Pic: Linda Matlow/Rex Features
Alex Chilton, leader of power pop band Big Star, has died of heart problems in a New Orleans hospital. His music career started as a teenager with the Box Tops.
He produced The Cramps and worked with dozens of other bands and solo artists.
Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie said his work was "as good as The Byrds or The Beatles".
Wildman Scot Gillespie added: “Even if he'd only ever produced the first Cramps album, he'd still be one of my rock 'n' roll heroes. But he did a lot more than that.
"He just made so many great records, and they were crazy rock 'n' roll records.
“But they were also art records and beautiful records, mournful records, sad records, joyous records. What I'm trying to say is that Alex Chilton was one of the greats."
The Box Tops topped the charts in 1967 with The Letter.
He went on to form Big Star in 1971 and the albums they made in the 1970s, 1 Record, Radio City and Third/Sisters Lovers, are all on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 greatest albums of all times.
He was always more interested in the music than any related fame. In a 1987 interview he said: “What would be ideal would be to make a ton of money and have nobody know about you.
"Fame has a lot of baggage to carry around. I wouldn't want to be like Bruce Springsteen. I don't need that much money and wouldn't want to have 20 bodyguards following me."
Big Star performed sporadically over the years, they had been due to do a gig at the South by Southwest music festival on Saturday.
