"Rehab," the must-hear song that opens the second album from British soul singer Amy Winehouse, is a Motown-style winner with a banging beat and a lovesick bad girl testifying like Etta James about how she won't clean up her act. It's followed by the excellently funky "You Know I'm No Good" and "Me & Mr. Jones (Fuckery)," the latter of which begins, "What kind of fuckery is this?/You made me miss the Slick Rick gig." Winehouse is a nervy, witty songstress whom indie rockers, pop fans and hip-hoppers can dig. On Black, she gets help from producers Salaam Remi and Mark Ronson, who turn classic soul sounds into something big, bright and punchy. The tunes don't always hold up. But the best ones are impossible to dislike: Witness "Addicted," a wistful gem in which Winehouse chooses weed over a lover.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.