Rockabilly hellcat Jason D. Williams spent more than 20 years pounding out Jerry Lee Lewis covers in Southern clubs until his songwriter buddy Todd Snider urged him to write his own material. Produced by Snider, Killer Instincts was written loose and on the spot in the studio. The songs toss together rockabilly, old-school country and killer humor: Williams pledges to join his lover in hell on the slow New Orleans boogie "To Hell With You" and mocks his Arkansas roots on "White Trash Wife." On "Like Jerry Lee," he jokingly fends off comparisons to the Killer, howling, "I don't take that many drugs/And I don't have Oriental rugs." But the best part is the raucous, freewheeling sound: There hasn't been raw, vintage boogie this solid since Jerry Lee lost his steam in the Seventies.

Keep up with rock's hottest photos in Random Notes.

“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."