When I Come Around - Water Tower

When I Come Around - Water Tower

2:40

single, 2026

Written by Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool

I had high hopes for this bluegrass version of the Green Day classic. The original already runs on wiry momentum and melodic directness, and Water Tower have the right ingredients on paper to transform it into something ragged and exuberant. Instead, the performance feels oddly restrained.  The fiddle brings some welcome bounce, but the banjo and acoustic guitar settle into a lower-energy groove that never quite catches fire.  Above all, the vocalist seems fairly sedated.  Nothing is incompetent; the band is decent, the arrangement pleasant, but overall it conveys the impression that the band had to be cajoled into doing this cover rather than excited by the prospect.  

I've Got Gratitude! - Jake Minton

I've Got Gratitude! - Jake Minton

2:59

What Is Joy?, 2026

Written by Jake Minton?

This is a children's song, very informed by Weird Al Yankovic, especially in the elastic vocal delivery, but with a thunderous rock track behind it.  As the title says, this song encourages kids (and adults) to stop wallowing and poisoning everyone else's mood.  It's corny but sweet, especially when the silly voices and children's chorus come in, and anyway, it's well-intentioned and the songwriting is top-notch.  Check out these genuinely clever lines: "I got power to make it better / But I’m never gonna do it while I’m whining ’bout the weather."  And the follow-up — "If I rain on your parade / It's only gonna make me wetter" — is the solid, memorable wordplay that makes good children's music.

First, You've Got to Recognize God - The Burnadettes

First, You've Got to Recognize God - The Burnadettes

single, 1963

Written by George Fowler

The Burnadettes are an obscure female group on Divinity, Motown's gospel label.  This is a fiery, vocal-heavy gospel of the thundering denunciation variety.  There's not much melody beyond a few organ lines behind the voices, but I do enjoy the way the song points an accusing finger at book-learned nerdlingers: "Biologists, neurologists, psychologists, geologists / Out of all of the knowledge that you learned in college / First you've got to recognize God."  The whole point of the song is to say that you can't take credit for anything, even your innate intelligence, as it too came from God.

I've Got the World On a String - Frank Sinatra

I've Got the World On a String - Frank Sinatra

2:08

single, 1953

Written by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, 1932

Backed by Nelson Riddle's buoyant arrangement, Sinatra's vocal on this love song glides with conversational ease, stretching and clipping phrases so naturally that the performance feels almost improvised.  It's the song of a guy who's happy with everything because he's in love: "Life is a beautiful thing / As long as I hold the string / I'd be a silly so-and-so / If I should ever let it go."  The orchestra swings without heaviness: crisp brass punches, dancing strings, and a subtle rhythmic bounce that gives the song its forward momentum. Sinatra doesn't over-emote, but he builds up over the course of the song, showing of his remarkable lungs at the final chorus. 

She's Got Something - Jimmy Ballard

She's Got Something - Jimmy Ballard

2:49

single, 1952

Written by Jimmy Ballard and Charles Kanter

This is a laid-back honky-tonk, the dim shores of rockabilly just barely visible during the fiddle and guitar solos.  It's a winking double-entendre song lyrically, risqué-for-the-time in the same way as "I'm Going To Give It To Mary With Love."  As in that droll ditty, this one hints at some sexual mystery ("Oh, she's got something I've always wanted / And I have tried so hard to get / But every time I ask her for it / All she can say is 'Please not yet"'"), only to reveal the quotidian punchline at the end: it's her telephone number.

I've Got Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding

I've Got Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding

3:15

single, 1968

Written by Zelma Redding, Otis Redding, Joe Rock

A deeply soulful R&B about that most common of subjects: the jilted lover.  "I know you said he was just a friend / But I saw him kiss you again and again."  What elevates this song beyond heartbreak cliché is the sheer emotional authority of the performance. Released after Redding's death, the song showcases his incredible vocal power, his voice moving from wounded restraint to ragged pleading without ever losing control.  I believe that Steve Cropper is playing electric guitar with Booker T. on the keyboards.  The horns and backing vocals maintain the dignity of Memphis soul, but Redding increasingly sounds as if he's barely holding himself together, especially when he mutters "rough dreams" and "bad dreams" beneath the refrain.  It's the sound of a man trying to sing himself through betrayal.

Pistol Packin' Mama - Al Dexter & His Troopers

Pistol Packin' Mama - Al Dexter & His Troopers

2"48

single, 1943

Written by Al Dexter

This hillbilly honky-tonk was later covered by artists as diverse as Gene Vincent, the Flamin' Groovies, Bing Crosby, and John Prine.  It's a sort of novelty song, or at least a humorous one.  The narrator is out drinking beer and having fun with ladies when his old lady (the "mama" is an epithet for paramour, not the woman who birthed him) comes in with a gun.  Out go the lights and out go the ladies.  He promises that he'll woo her every day and put away his old ways, but, it seems, to no avail: "Now there was old Al Dexter, he always had his fun / But with some lead, she shot him dead; his honkin' days are done."  Sad!

Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte

Jamaica Farewell - Harry Belafonte

3:05

Calypso, 1956

Written by Irving Burgie, a.k.a. Lord Burgess

This is a gentle mento folk song about someone, presumably a sailor, who is leaving Kingston and a lovely girl the narrator met there.  The lyrics evoke detailed memories of a cherished place ("Down at the market you can hear / Ladies cry out while on their heads they bear / Ackee rice, salt fish are nice / And the rum is fine any time of year"), sung in Belfonte's delicate, precisely enunciated baritone.  It's an emotional declaration of nostalgia wrapped in a beautiful melody.

Just Walkin' In the Rain - Johnnie Ray

Just Walkin' In the Rain - Johnnie Ray

2:37

single, 1956

Written by Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley, 1952

This song has an interesting origin.  It was written by two convicts in Tennessee State Prison, or, more precisely, composed by one convict, Bragg, who gave Riley songwriting credit for writing the lyrics down for him.  Bragg recorded the song in 1953 with his band, the Prisonaires.  Lyrically, the song is a plaint of a man walking around missing his lost love: "Just walkin' in the rain / Gettin' soakin' wet / Torturin' my heart / By tryin' to forget."  Ray's version has a crisp vocal over Ray Conniff's strings, a catchy whistle, and a male chorus that echoes his lines.  I guess it's not Ray's fault that he would become one of the first of many white artists to get rich and famous popularizing black music while the original artists stayed obscure.

Jamaica Say You Will - Jackson Browne

Jamaica Say You Will - Jackson Browne

3:26

Jackson Browne, 1972

Written by Jackson Browne

This bittersweet maritime folk tale of a song is the story of a girl, Jamaica, whom the narrator loves and stays a time with ("Jamaica was the lovely one, I played her well / As we lay in the tall grass where the shadows fell"), but as the daughter of a sea captain, she belongs to the ocean and her native shores.  The narrator helps her load the ship for home on the docks one dark sad night, and must decide to accompany with or lose her.  Browne sketches the relationship in soft, impressionistic strokes, with their romance feeling temporary from the beginning due to lines about hiding from others. Musically, the song drifts with a gentle, melancholy grace, Browne's piano and voice carrying the emotional weight without overstatement.