John Lennon's Mind Games was a retreat from its more political predecessor, 1972's Some Time in New York City, but it was still a reflection of its time. Lennon recorded the album during the summer of 1973, when the Watergate hearings (which he visited with Yoko Ono) were in high gear, and he was being threatened with deportation. Against that backdrop, the album can be heard as a calming, internal mantra — Lennon's message of encouragement to himself. "Don't despair/Paranoia is everywhere/We can shake it with love when we're scared," he sings on "Bring On the Lucie (Freda Peeple)." Gently remixed and remastered by Ono, this new version brings out some welcome sonic detail on the first post-Beatles solo album Lennon made without Phil Spector's help. Lennon's previously unreleased home demos for "Aisumasen (I'm Sorry)," "Bring On the Lucie" and "Meat City" are also included, and, while not especially revealing, they're nice to have.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."