This is psychedelic scholarship at its finest: a lavishly illustrated booklet and vinyl album devoted to these acid-rock pioneers. Born in Ohio, Mad River emigrated to San Francisco's ballrooms in early 1967 and cut legendary wax, including the 1968 freakout Mad River. David Biasotti's account of the band's highs and trials (a disastrous mastering of that album, a crushing review in this magazine) is a lesson in busted hippie dreams, while the music here – the furious outtake "Jersey Sloo" and four '67 demos, among them the group's signature trip, "Windchimes" – proves Mad River had nirvana in their grasp.

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• Photos: Random Notes

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."