Remakes Rule Alternative Top 10 Playlist

Talk about your odd couples.

Even with their mutual fondness for berets, who ever thought two of pop’s most individualistic pop stylists--Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones--would team up on record?

The doctor’s lively, New Orleans-inspired musical brew has been seasoned over the years with everything from a touch of Creole to a trace of voodoo, while Jones’ forte is a more intimate and sophisticated exploration of personal wonders and wounds.

As surprising as the pairing on a track on Dr. John’s new “In a Sentimental Mood” album is the song selection: a remake of “Makin’ Whoopee,” the playful tune Gus Khan and Walter Donaldson wrote in 1928 for actor-comedian Eddie Cantor.

The duet is one of three surprising remakes on this month’s Alternative Top 10, a guide to the best new singles and album tracks. The others: country sensation Randy Travis’ version of Brook Benton’s R&B-tinged; “It’s Just a Matter of Time” and New York rap-metal band 24-7 Spyz’s socially conscious reworking of Kool & the Gang’s party-minded “Jungle Boogie.”

As appealing as the remakes are, the top spot on the Alternative Top 10 goes to a refreshingly imaginative new, hip-hop/pop number: Nenah Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance,” the most inviting dance-floor hit so far this year.

The Alternative Top 10 doesn’t exclude noteworthy singles in the actual Billboard magazine Top 10, but it also reaches out to album tracks and selections by new artists or those artists from fields, including country and rap, that frequently get shunned by radio’s mainstream formats.

1. Nenah Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance” (Virgin)--Cherry, the stepdaughter of jazz trumpeter Don Cherry, is already the toast of London, where she has lived during most of the ‘80s. This unusually personable single--an anti-material girl’s exposition on what love’s got to do with it--should make her an equally hot item here. Cherry’s debut album is due by June 1.

2. John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Big Daddy of Them All” (Mercury)--The first single from Mellencamp’s new album is “Pop Singer,” but this is a more original and affecting track; an angry, introspective look at the painful consequences of selfishness and unchecked ego.

3. Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones’ “Makin’ Whoopee” (Warner Bros.)--Guaranteed to make you smile.

4. Drivin’ n’ Cryin’s “Honeysuckle Blue” (Island)--There’s more of a roots-rock feel in the Atlanta band’s music than you find in U2 or Hothouse Flowers, but there is a youthful idealism in this song that is powered by an intensity and conviction that is similar to those Irish groups.

5. De La Soul’s “Magic Number” (Tommy Boy)--Yet another reason why this New York trio is doing more to extend the pop boundaries of rap than any outfit since Run-D.M.C.

6. Randy Travis’ “It’s Just a Matter of Time” (Warner Bros.)--Travis’ country instincts are so perfectly suited to this 1959 hit that the record--from Richard Perry’s new “Rock, Rhythm & Blues” album--is a refreshing reminder of how country and R&B; once coexisted on the pop charts.

7. Tom Petty’s “Feel a Whole Lot Better” (MCA)--Petty’s new “Full Moon Fever” isn’t his most ambitious album, but he has rarely sounded more comfortable. This affectionate remake of the Byrds tune underscores that spirit.

8. 24-7 Spyz’s “Jungle Boogie” (Relativity)--In overhauling Kool & the Gang’s 1974 madcap exercise, these New Yorkers turn up the funk, add some metal guitar and top it off with a punchy, Public Enemy-style activist rap.

9. Royal Crescent Mob’s “Stock Car Race” (Sire)--Good-natured bumper-car rock from a band that, at least in this track, sounds like a cross between Eddie Cochran and the Ramones.

10. Love and Rockets’ “Motorcycle” (RCA)--The obvious model for this moody, but super-charged feedback soundscape is Jesus and Mary Chain (check out “The Living End” on the “Psychocandy” album), but it’s also obvious that there’s still life in the model.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets for the Who’s Aug. 26 show at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum go on sale today through all Music Plus Ticketmaster locations or by phone at (213) 480-3232 or (714) 740-2000. . . . A second nights of the New Order, Public Image Ltd. and Sugarcubes package at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre has been added for June 18. . . . On sale Sunday for the Greek Theatre: Night of the Guitar, featuring Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Ronnie Montrose, Leslie West, Robby Krieger and others (June 24); The WAVE Summerfest starring Michael Tomlinson (June 25); Harry Belafonte (July 8); Judy Collins (July 23) and Bernadette Peters and Peter Allen (July 28). . . . Howard Jones will be at the Universal Amphitheatre on July 5. . . . David Sanborn at the Pacific Amphitheatre on July 11 and at the Universal Amphitheatre on July 14 and 15 goes on sale Sunday.