First known for 1966's bouncy hit "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog," Norma Tanega had a longer and more complex career than that song might suggest. The title track of her 1966 album was a whimsical mix of Greenwich Village folk and mainstream pop, but the signs that she was an individualistic artist were already in the sardonic tone of "You're Dead" (which found new life in the 2010s as the theme song to the film and TV show What We Do in the Shadows). She always made music on her own terms, adding touches of psych-rock to her 1971 album I Don't Think It Will Hurt If You Smile and creating avant-garde sounds with later projects like Hybrid Vigor and Baboonz. By the 2010s, Tanega was recognized as a pioneering free spirit, with Yo La Tengo and Thee Oh Sees adding her songs to their repertoires. ~ Heather Phares