His career on the resuscitator, Luther Vandross needs a pop makeover as badly as anybody, so on this comeback album, label head Clive Davis gives Vandross the Carlos Santana Special. A bevy of young songwriters and producers — R.L. from Next, Jon B, and Soulshock and Karlin among them — aims to make Vandross more sprightly, with midtempo synth beats, and more hip, with measured doses of ill-advised slang. Thing is, he doesn't need the help. Vandross' voice was one of the most supple R&B sounds of the Eighties, and the best moments here are the anachronistic ones — unadorned ballads like "Hearts Get Broken All the Time" and "I'd Rather" allow Vandross' pipes free rein to simmer and explode. By comparison, the "updated" Luther on "Take You Out" and "Grown Thangs" feels contrived. Santana might have needed other voices to make his guitar work sing, but Vandross' tender tenor is all the calling card he needs.

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.