All the best from the lord of the big beat for more than a decade, British DJ Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, has bridged the gap between break beats and silly little pop songs better than anyone. This smartly compiled best-of showcases Cook's late-Nineties hits ("Praise You"); stupid-fun bangers with whimsical, gratuitously repeated vocal samples ("Sho Nuff"); buoyant remixes of other people's songs ("Brimful of Asha"); and a smidgen of moodier esoterica ("Sunset [Bird of Prey]"). It doesn't take long to identify the common elements here: big beats, can't-miss hooks and a hip-hop DJ's tendency to draw sounds from all over. But if it were so easy, everybody would do it. The riotous Everybody Loves a Carnival takes Brazilian samba to a rave, and "That Old Pair of Jeans" — one of two new songs here, both good — is a warm retro-soul jam featuring Latryx vocalist Lateef. Slim's heyday as a hit machine may have passed, but this collection is a vivid reminder that everyone's still invited to his party.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.