1. Long Tall Sally- Little Richard

• "Well long tall Sally she's built for speed, she got everything that Uncle John needs, oh baby, yes baby, ooh baby, having me some fun tonight." This song has so much energy it's ridiculous. "Long Tall Sally" is only 2 minutes and 10 seconds but what more do you want? The boogie woogie piano, the vocal and the lyrics all come together perfectly. By 1956 standards this was as good as it gets. I do love the line about being "built for speed". A few years later (3 to be exact) the great Chicago blues songwriter Willie Dixon (perhaps inspired by "Long Tall Sally") penned "Built For Comfort" with the classic lyric- "I'm built for comfort, I ain't built for speed". The Beatles covered "Long Tall Sally" early in their career but they didn't come close to the original. Little Richard is an undisputed rock 'n' roll architect/pioneer. How much his sound varied is debatable and was the subject of a rather hilarious joke on the cartoon Family Guy. If you "Google" or "You Tube" "Little Richard- Piano Riff Woo" you'll know what I'm talking about.

2. Sleepwalker- The Wallflowers

• "Cupid don't draw back your bow, Sam Cooke didn't know what I know, I'll never be your valentine, the sleepwalker in me, and God only know that I tried." Jakob Dylan (sleep) Walker! Pardon my inside joke. Back in the time known as the 90s, The Wallflowers were a popular outfit. Most of that success was tied to their 1996 multi-platinum breakthrough "Bringing Down the Horse" which spawned several big hits. Their 2000 follow up "Breach" received much less attention but "Sleepwalker" did get some radio play. I do love the reference to Sam Cooke even with the dubious presumption that the singer knows more about affairs of the heart than Sam. This version comes from volume 5 of the Y100 sonic sessions collection. Speaking of said sessions, Weezer recently released a deluxe edition of their album "Pinkerton" which features a number of bonus tracks including 3 songs from their original Y100 sonic sessions recording. This is noteworthy to me since I was in that audience, so technically I'm on a Weezer record. What does this have to do with the Wallflowers? Absolutely nothing.

3. High & Dry- Jamie Cullum

• "Drying up in conversation, you will be the one who cannot talk, all your insides fall to pieces, you just sit there wishing you could still make love, they're the one who'll hate you when you think you've got the world all sussed out, they're the ones who'll spit at you, you will be the one screaming out." I won't say I enjoy this more than the Radiohead original (I'm sure some would find that blasphemous) but I do enjoy it just as much...perhaps because I don't worship at the Radiohead alter. Lyrically "High & Dry" is genius and who doesn't enjoy a nice falsetto? Radiohead does deserve all the credit here, but the Jamie Cullum version is jazzy good times. The original "High and Dry" comes courtesy of "the bends" album which also gave us "Fake Plastic Trees"... the kind of melancholy acoustic alternative music a "sensy" like me can't get enough of. As soon as I'm done listening to this I'm going to go outside and marvel at fireflies.