As great a guitarist as Carlos Santana is, his choices of songs and sidemen during the past twenty years have been questionable, at best. The evidence is in this double-disc anthology of his group's Columbia years. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, Santana cranked out one gem after another, from the scorching "Soul Sacrifice" to Tito Puente's sexy "Oye Como Va." But when the core of the Santana band began to fall apart, the guitarist turned to jazz fusion and pedestrian pop metal. Disc Two is plagued by corporate-rock drivel such as "Open Invitation" and "Nowhere to Run." For the real essential stuff, stick with Santana's first three albums — classics all.

“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.