Beyoncé Knowles could have nabbed an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting actress. That's how good she is playing it all sexy, sassy and druggy as Etta James, the R&B singer who found the soul in songs like "At Last." Too bad for Knowles that she's only part of Darnell Martin's rushed mess of a movie that jams the story of Chicago-based Chess Records into one incoherent package. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess, who started the company in the 1950s with his brother Phil (we hardly see him) to record great blues artists and pay them with Caddys. There's Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Eamonn Walker's as Howlin' Wolf, and a lively Mos Def as Chuck Berry. It's all a blur, except for the music. That's workin'.

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.