No way was the country-pop megastar of "Rhinestone Cowboy" fame going to make a sparse fixin'-to-die record à la Johnny Cash. Billed as Glen Campbell's farewell to music (the 75-year-old singer was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's), Ghost is baroquely arranged drama that echoes his string-swelled Seventies hits. Yet this biographical album, penned by Campbell and some unlikely contributors (including the Replacements' Paul Westerberg), is introspective and often haunted. Campbell's soaring tenor has gone a bit shaky with age, but the years have added an edge to his singing. Dude's definitely not going out softly.

Listen to "Ghost on the Canvas":

“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.