Barbados-born seventeen-year-old Rihanna moved to America only two years ago, but she's already scored one of the biggest hits of the summer, "Pon De Replay," a poppy piece of dancehall reggae with slapping, syncopated beats recalling big-band jazz. Produced mostly by Carl Sturken and Evan Rogers, the songwriting-production duo behind the worst boy-band hit of all time, 'NSync's "God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You," the rest of Music of the Sun lacks the single's immediacy and rhythmic ingenuity. Photogenic Rihanna suggests a young Mariah Carey minus the birdcalls, and the generic vocal hiccups and frills clearly learned from American R&B often overwhelm her Caribbean charm. At fifty-two minutes, Rihanna's debut overstays its welcome, but the single justifies plenty of replays.

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."