In Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty often sounded like acountry singer hiding out in a rock band, and he proved it on his first solo album, the 1973 covers disc The Blue Ridge Rangers. This long-delayedfollow-up finds him backed by fiddles, mandolins, dobros and pedal steelguitar — not to mention guests like Don Henley and Bruce Springsteen — coveringobscure chestnuts such as John Prine's wistful 1971 environmentalist anthem "Paradise." Fogerty plays it too safe on sleepy tunes like John Denver's 1974 "Back Home Again," but you can't deny hisscratchy growl on deep cuts like the rockabilly barnburner "Haunted House."

“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."