This inevitable hits package raises an obvious question: Are three so-so new songs, decent sequencing and a track commemorating a surreal TV moment enough to make you buy thirteen (great) songs all over again? Hard to say, but now that Marshall Mathers seems close to retiring, it's hard to hate on a CD with unforgettable jolts of energy like "Lose Yourself," "The Way I Am" and "Stan," hands-down the most hair-raising pop song of this millennium. You can quibble with the selection when it comes to the nonhits, but Curtain Call is a solid summary of Eminem's transformation from hip-hop prankster with delicious anti-social tendencies ("My Name Is") to caring father with melodramatic tendencies and self-serious rock star with stardom tendencies ("The Way I Am"), not to mention his subsequent recycling of those roles ("Mockingbird," "When I'm Gone"). The Elton John-assisted "Stan" from the 2001 Grammys is a bonus, but the new songs, including the Nate Dogg throwaway "Shake That" and the butt-stoopid "Fack," aren't essential. That said, nobody but the guy with his name on the cover could have done any of these tunes. Whenever he comes back, this is a set to grow on.

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."