Grace Of My Heart: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
A terrific sampler of greatest hits from the heyday of girl groups and  the Brill Building--except that none of the songs are actually from that era.   What we have here is an incredible simulation--from Allison Anders' unjustly  overlooked 1996 movie about the tempestuous life and career of a Carole King- like singer-songwriter (the magnificent Illeana Douglas) who spends years  writing for others before finding her own voice.  But instead of just licensing  the old Shirelles' recordings of Goffin-King hits, the filmmakers came up with  the brilliant idea of doing original songs by combining the sensibilities of  contemporary artists and their songwriting forebears.  So, for example, Elvis  Costello and Burt Bacharach teamed up to writeandperform the power- ballad "God Give Me Strength" (although I wish they'd also included  Douglas's even more moving version from the picture); Leslie Gore teams with  Larry Klein and David Baerwald for "My Secret Love" (performed by Miss  Lily Banquette of Combustible Edison); Gerry and Louise Goffin team with  Baerwald for "Between Two Worlds" (performed by Sean Colvin); J.  Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. writes and sings some Brian Wilson/Beach Boys-type stuff  ("Take a Run at the Sun," "Don't You Think It's Time"), and  so on.  Buy the record; see the movie.  You won't be disappointed.--Jim  Emerson