Daily News from New York, New York • 59

m3 Eric Clapton rounds up the Impressions to sing the Prisonaires' classic. "Just Walking in the Rain." Kid Rock howls his way through "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O- Dee" and Chris Isaak sounds astonish- ingly like Elvis crooning "I Wouldn't Be the Same Without You." Not everything is a Sun song. Bryan Ferry skips ahead in Elvis' career to "Don't Be Cruel" and Mandy Barnett and the Jordanaires revisit Hank Williams' "You Win Again." The Williams song illustrates how Sun's sound sprang from the best of what came before a point reinforced when Bob Dylan sings the little-known and thoroughly wonderful Sun rocker "A Red Cadillac and a Black Mustache." Hank could have sung that one, easy. Do the artists here sing these songs better than the original recordings? No. Are the songs worth hearing? Absolutely whether you have heard them before or, especially, if you have not.

David Hinckley ENRIQUE IGLESIAS "Escape" (Universal) part of his marketing promise. The new dance tunes constructed around him like "Love to See You Cry" or "One Night Stand" have roughly the appeal of Rick Astley's B-sides, though Iglesias lacks a voice worthy of that '80s a Vocally, he really only has one move: the huffy little pout meant to signify heartbreak. It sounds more like a tic. You would do well to ignore the album's single, "Hero," which lives down to its title. But amid the rest, you may sift some guilty joys.

JimFarber LANGLEY SCHOOLS MUSIC PROJECT "Innocence Despair" (BarNone) SAM BISBEE He's so fluffy he makes Ricky Martin look like Bob Dylan. But is that enough to make us write off Enrique Iglesias? Not entirely. Naturally, the new album from this dark-eyed hottie has the depth of a thimble. But there is a certain bub-blegum snap to his new tunes. And at least Julio's son delivers on the pinup Even with a revolving cast of guest musicians, Bisbee has managed to craft a unified vision for his songs.

His duet with Leona Naess on "Miracle Car" is a standout as the two capture the madcap dialogue of an affair about to run off the road. Isaac Guzman 1 1 SAM BISBEE "Vehicle" (Terrible) VARIOUS ARTISTS "Good Rockin' Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records" (Sire) Sam Bisbee's solo debut is one of those rough little gems that is likely to get lost for a few months after its release. Then, about a year from now, after so many friends have told their friends about how great it is, those who appreciate smart, literate songwriting will agree that "Vehicle" is a gleaming sapphire of an album. The product of 60 Canadian grade-school children, circa 1976, "Innocence Despair" is an odd pop artifact a vanity record pressed just for the students and rescued from obscurity by WFMU deejay Irwin Chusid. Led by their rock-inclined music teacher, the Langley kids tackle classics by David Bowie, Paul McCartney, the Beach Boys, the Eagles and others.

The execution is crude but the spirit is so pure you're likely to appreciate it as if you were a proud parent on open-house night. The backing band's out-of-tune guitar and jarringly off-the-beat percussion they are students, too are akin to the scrawl of a primitive folk artist and take some getting used to. But once you are acclimated, the most intriguing moments come when these 9- to 12-year-olds apply their squeaky voices to songs with distinctly adult themes, such as "Space Oddity," "In My Room" and "Desperado." There's nothing cute about their performances, which lends the work a strange sense of timelessness. It is an affecting album, but only for devout seekers of lo-fi iconoclasm. I.G.

Imagining love affairs in office cubicles and nubile groupies who have just turned 18, Bis-bee laces his songs with wry humor and deft It is hard to overstate how brightly Sun Records has shone on popular music since the 1950s, when it introduced Elvis Presley, Junior Parker, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash and others to an eager public. But sometimes we forget as time passes, so a CD on which 16 contemporary artists sing Sun-related songs is, if not an original idea, a good one. The material is nicely varied, too, starting with Paul McCartney's latest swipe at Elvis' first song, "That's All Right," with which Paul is obviously and quite reasonably in love. Hi melodies. While his compositions are simple, they sound timeless, taking cues from the supple romanticism of Crowded House's Neil Finn and the urbane goofi-ness of Fountains of Wayne.

THE CRANBERRIES "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee" (MCA) -r--- ranberries fans who fell in love with rs. Wbr the band for its chiming guitars and jright melodies will feel warmly 1 welcomed by the group's fifth album. Dolores O'Riordan's breathy lilt still bounces from playful to piqued and the band has cut back on the hard-rock tendencies that marred "To the Faithful Departed." But for all its familiarity, "Wake Up" does not have the spark that ignited the band's earliest releases." The title track and the first single, "Analyse," capture some of that magic, but the rest is simply affable background music. "Time Is Ticking Out" even makes the mistake of adopting a preachy tone about the evils of nuclear power and greenhouse gases. O'Riordan is still trying to connect with simple, straightforward lyrics, but rather than sounding emotionally honest they seem more like unedited diary entries.

The Cranberries need a second cup of java to jump-start their stalling creativity. IG. 0 0 ro.