Click to listen to Tennis' "Marathon" and "Take Me Somewhere"

Great backstory: Denver husband-and-wife team Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley sail around the East Coast for eight months, then write songs about their voyage. Jimmy Buffett this ain't: Think Neko Case's cover of the Shangri-Las' "Train From Kansas City," with Best Coast's fuzzed-out guitars. Moore's voice isn't huge, but she uses it well, morphing o's into "oh-whoa-ohs" like a siren in a frilly Fifties swimsuit, while Riley's guitar lines sparkle like sun-kissed breakers. "Pigeon" and "Marathon" are girl-group-style love songs knotted with nautical terms ("close hauling with my darling"). It's the coolest "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essay ever.

Video: Tennis Perform "Pigeon," "Marathon" and "Bimini bay"

“Tonight's the Night”

The lead cut and title track from this girl group's debut album, "Tonight's the Night" was written by 19-year-old bandmember Shirley Owens, who sings lead, and producer Luther Dixon. The band from Passaic, New Jersey met in high school, first calling themselves the Pequellos. The song's frank thoughts about sexual and emotional surrender was racy for the time, but that didn't stop the Chiffons from cutting a similar version immediately after the original came out. "We were the first female group to write some of our own material," band member Beverly Lee recalls. "We did have some say-so in our writing."