Twenty-five-year-old Trey Songz made ladies squeal last spring with a sultry MTV Unplugged cover of Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody." The R&B smoothie's fourth record has no such surprises, notwithstanding a brassy, helium-voiced cameo from Nicki Minaj on the catchy, booze-celebrating "Bottoms Up." Otherwise it's just steady mackin' over dull, airbrushed slow-jams, as Songz rhymes "just like a kid who found some candy" with "let me feel and find your panties." Yes, he invented sex, as an earlier single noted. But when he declares, "The only thing inside my mind is 'mm-hmm,' " it's hard not to say, "Really?"

“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.