Brittany Howard – the wrecking ball who fronts this roots band – turns Zeppelin's blues miasma into a scorched-earth riposte. When she moans, "I got another child on the way, that makes 11/I'm in constant heaven," sexual abandon takes on a whole new burden.

Listen to Alabama Shakes' "How Many More Times": 

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• Photos: Random Notes

“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."