The Ink Spots, "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire"

One song serves as the inspiration for this collection. I remember when I first heard it. I was housesitting and flipping through the CDs set out by the owners of the house for me to check out in the week they'd be gone. (They did that with movies, too. Thanks to them, I know about The More the Merrier with Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea. "Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!") I listened to the Nat King Cole Trio that week, early stuff from before 1943. Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt played for me from the hot jazz clubs of Paris. But when the CD player moved to the third disc in the tray, the Ink Spots crooned and I swooned. This number gets me every time.

I don't want to set the world on fire, honey
I love you too much
I just want to start a great big flame down in your heart
You see, way down inside of me, darling
I have only one desire
And that one desire is you
And I know nobody else ain't gonna do

The White Stripes, "Little Acorns"

Less of a spoken interlude and more of a spoken prelude, The White Stripes featured this paragraph of spoken text on their Grammy-winning album, Elephant. Seemingly, the text is narrated by a 1960s elementary school science filmstrip narrator.

When problems overwhelm us and sadness smothers us where do we find the will and the courage to continue? Well the answer may come in the caring voice of a friend, a chance encounter with a book, or from a personal faith.For Janet help came from her faith, but it also from a squirrel. Shortly after her divorce, Janet lost her father, then she lost her job.She had mounting money problems. But Janet not only survived, she worked her way out of despondency and now she says, life is good again. How could this happen? She told me that late one autumn day, when she was at her lowest she watched a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter. One at a time he would take them to the nest. And she thought, if that squirrel can take care of himself with the harsh winter coming on, so can I. Once I ripped my problems into small pieces I was able to carry them, just like those acorns, one at a time.

The Highwaymen, "The Last Cowboy Song"

The Highwaymen was an "outlaw country" group comprised of four country music legends: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson. Most of their work consisted of covers of already popular songs. Released in 1985, "The Last Cowboy Song" was a cover of a 1980 work by William Edwin "Ed" Bruce, Jr., better known as Ed Bruce.

The old Chisholm Trail is covered in concrete
They truck it to market in fifty foot rigs
They roll by his marker and don't even notice
Like living and dying was all he ever did

Donovan, "Atlantis"

Donovan is a Scottish singer/songwriter and a folk contemporary of Bob Dylan. "Atlantis" was released in 1968 and includes the word antediluvian.

The continent of Atlantis was an island
which lay before the great flood
in the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean.
So great an area of land, that from her western shores
those beautiful sailors journeyed
to the South and the North Americas with ease,
in their ships with painted sails.
To the East Africa was a neighbour, across a short strait of sea miles.
The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of The Atlantian culture.
The antediluvian kings colonised the world
All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas
In all legends from all lands were from fair Atlantis.
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships to all corners of the Earth.
On board were the Twelve:
The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,
The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.
Though Gods they were -
And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind
Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new
Hail Atlantis!

Lee Fields and the Expressions, "You're the Kind of Girl"

Lee Fields started his professional singing career in 1967 at the age of 17. He showed up in New York City with a stranger's business card in hand and two dollars in his pocket, and hasn't stopped since. "You're the Kind of Girl" is included on Faithful Man, released in 2012.

I call you just to let you know
That's it's you I adore
And since you walked in my life
My life means so much more

More here, here, and here.

Scissor Sisters, "Any Which Way"

Ana Matronic is a lead singer of the Scissor Sisters, an American glam rock/disco/pop band formed in 2001. "Any Which Way" was released in September 2010.

You know, baby, when I was taking my pantyhose out of their egg this evening, I thought, "I'm gonna find that man who is the right shade of bottle tan, a man that smells like cocoa butter and cash..."

Jack Scott, "My True Love"

Jack Scott is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter who had his first major hit in 1958 with a double-sided recording: "Leroy" and "My True Love."

Darling, I love you
I'll always be true
My prayers, they were answered
And the Lord sent me you