One hesitates to tell Willie Nelson what to do, but maybe the man should always sing songs with the word always in the title: "Always on My Mind" is one of Nelson's most enduring classics, and now "It Will Always Be" — the stately opening title track to his latest album — is the perfect beginning to Nelson's strongest album since 1996's Spirit.

Unlike some of his more homespun recent releases, the mostly mellow, thoughtful Always — produced with real style by James Stroud — draws on the best Nashville has to offer. An improbable highlight: the goofball, rollicking take on Greg Allman's "Midnight Rider" with Toby Keith.

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.