By JON BREAM, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Scotty McCreery had just come home from school with an assignment: write essays for college applications.

Wait a minute. Isn't he the reigning "American Idol"? Isn't he about to go on tour with Brad Paisley?

He wasn't as cute and playful as Paul McCartney, as sexy and dangerous as Mick Jagger or as handsome and wholesome as Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits.

But the Kinks' Ray Davies was the most gentlemanly rocker in the first wave of the British Invasion, an introspective soul who celebrated whimsy, nostalgia and Englishness.

The golden locks are gone. So are two band members -- and that no-shirt look. But Peter Frampton has the talk box, bassist Stanley Sheldon and a 14-minute arrangement of "Do You Feel Like We Do" to re-create 1976's blockbuster "Frampton Comes Alive" in concert.

Unlike Brett Favre, Garrison Keillor is ending his iron-man streak voluntarily. On Jan. 15, "A Prairie Home Companion" will have its first planned guest host in 1,271 shows.

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - Even guitar heroes can be humble, shy and quiet.

Jonny Lang had never met Eric Clapton. And he wasn't about to introduce himself now, even though the guitar god invited the young blues-rock star to perform at his Crossroads Guitar Festival here last month.

Elvis and Michael had better watch out. Jimi is making a move.

Forty years after his death, Jimi Hendrix is enjoying the kind of resurgence in the posthumous-rock-star derby that might rival the sales of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

A St. Paul, Minn., record dealer scored $10,323 on eBay, courtesy of a hissy 7-inch blues record that gets stuck in the middle and cost him less than 25 cents.

"I'm pretty amazed," said dealer Tim Schloe, 39. "I had no idea what to expect" because the disc (Greyhound Blues, a 1953 single by obscure Alabama bluesman D.A. Hunt ) is insanely rare."

Admit it: We love cheese. Not those deep-fried things at the State Fair or something with a foreign name served with wine. I'm talking cheesy entertainment. "Dancing With the Stars," B-movies, Wayne Newton -- you name it. At the top of the cheesy pop list is ABBA, whose music fuels the Meryl Streep film "Mamma Mia!," just opening.