Still a force of nature at seventy-seven, B.B. King has made his new album, Reflections, a classy affair, tilted toward ballads and standards. King gives a warmly enveloping take on "(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons"; his voice opens up wide, and glistening notes fall from his guitar. Admittedly, he seems a little wobbly and uncertain on "A Mother's Love" and "Neighborhood Affair," and King's wooden takes on "Always on My Mind" and "What a Wonderful World" fall well short of the definitive versions by Willie Nelson and Louis Armstrong. But the band — which includes young bloods Doyle Bramhall II on guitar and Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums — cooks with swaggering big-band panache on "Exactly Like You" and "I Want a Little Girl," and King plays and sings with gritty elegance on "I Need You" and "Tomorrow Night."

“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.