Pick to Click

What does a hit song sound like before it’s a hit? You can hear for yourself on a fascinating new compilation album from Cypress Records, which offers the original songwriter demo versions of major pop hits. Titled “No. 1 With a Bullet,” the collection (due out next week) features Jon Lind performing “Crazy for You” (a hit for Madonna), Franne Golde and Dennis Lambert doing “Nightshift” (a Commodores hit), Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg doing “True Colors” (Cyndi Lauper had the hit) and Marti Jones crooning Liam Sternberg’s “Walk Like an Egyptian” (which sent the Bangles to the top of the charts). . . . And our nominee for rock songwriter of the year is Michelle Shocked, whose new album, “Short Sharp Shocked,” is due out Aug. 15 on PolyGram Records. Produced by Pete Anderson, the album is split between folk and honky-tonk tunes, with titles including “When I Grow Up,” “Memories of East Texas,” “(Making the Run to) Gladewater” and “If Love Was a Train.” The record also features a surprise--an unbilled song, “Fogtown,” which Shocked cut with a San Francisco punk group called Millions of Dead Christians. . . . Bluesman Philip Walker, who was in town recently at the Music Machine, has a new album due out this week from Hightone Records. Aptly titled “Blues,” it features such new songs as “Big Rear Window,” “90 Proof Evidence” and a new version of Howlin’ Wolf’s classic “How Many More Years.”