Twenty-six-year-old Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" is weapons-grade teen pop; after global warming kills us all, insects will still be doing karaoke routines to it. On her second LP (she released a singer-songwriter-y debut after placing third on Canadian Idol in 2008), Jepsen breathily body-slams pillow-clutching choruses from the likes of Max Martin and LMFAO's Redfoo. Justin Bieber even floats by for the acoustic dote "Beautiful," playing James Taylor to Carly's Carole King. But Kiss too often defaults to mediocre dance pop like the Owl City collaboration "Good Time" – heavy on Disney-fied thump, light on memorable hooks that might highlight her unassuming adorableness.

Listen to 'Kiss':

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."