Salsa is fusion music, and here's proof: a four-CD box of 1960s and 1970s jams with Willie Colón, Eddie Palmieri, Ray Barretto, Joe Bataan and other genre giants cross-breeding Latin rhythms with Afro-American grooves. Latin purists once dissed the hybrid boogaloo, but today songs like Joe Cuba's semi-rapped Spanglish "Do You Feel It? (¿Tú Lo Sientes?)" sound both fresh and funky, and Palmieri's "Chocolate Ice Cream (Helado de Chocolate)" is a jazzy cha-cha-cha to charm all palates. The disco mixes are occasionally overripe, but as Bronx block-party flashbacks go, it's vivid – you can almost smell the cuchifritos.

Listen To "Do You Feel It? (¿Tú Lo Sientes?)": 

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• Photos: Random Notes

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”