What kind of guy writes a song about how he tries to get people to call him "Freddie Mercury," but everybody keeps calling him "Right Said Fred"? Only one man: Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. While the band bashes out friendly trash-rock riffs, Finn goes off the deep end in surreal rants such as "Killer Parties," "Sketchy Metal" and "Positive Jam." He spins hilarious, hyperactive tales about America ("In the Nineties we were wired and well-connected/Put it all down on technology and lost everything we invested") and romance ("She tasted like those pickle chips"). "Certain Songs" pays tribute to a jukebox with the perfect ratio of Meat Loaf to Billy Joel. Like the rest of Almost Killed Me, it's bizarrely touching and insanely original.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.