If its backstory is to be believed, Linda Vista, the debut by California singer/songwriter (and son of Meryl Streep) Henry Wolfe, took shape on a cross-country drive during which Wolfe played only two albums: Paul McCartney's Ram and Harry Nilsson's Nilsson Sings Newman. It's certainly plausible: Linda Vista bears traces of Nilsson's ruined romanticism, Randy Newman's acrid humor and the cockeyed romanticism of McCartney's early solo outings. Though Wolfe's songs are classically pop – "Open the Door," with its whirligig acoustic guitar sparkles like classic Paul Simon and the title track, outfitted with lonesome harmonica, gallops lazily toward classic country – Linda Vista is situated in one of Tin Pan Alley's darker corners. There's a sense of perpetual defeat in Wolfe's parched tenor, adding a layer of pathos to his brittle pop. Maybe he came across a copy of Blue Valentine at some turnpike rest stop as well.

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“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."