Gym Class Heroes' Travie (formerly Travis) McCoy invented his own market by mixing emo, hip-hop and tween pop, and on his solo debut he makes good on a life of passing out business cards by pulling in everyone from T-Pain to Colin Munroe. He writes what he knows: money ("Billionaire"), tour-bus nookie ("Superbad [11:34]"), ambition ("The Manual"). His polished croon-rapping is more unctuous than charming, but he gets credit for dreaming of getting rich so he can fix New Orleans and pass out cars like Oprah.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."