The 12th Bon Jovi album extends the Springsteen liberalism in JBJ's stadium­rattling Jersey cheese into full-on "social commentary" (his term). "What About Now" and "I'm With You" are rousingly vague got-your-back anthems. But the songs also have a countrified contemplative side; on "Because We Can," the working-class heroes are a couple trying to save their marriage, and "What's Left of Me" decries the passing of punk club CBGB à la Springsteen lamenting Giants Stadium – "All that's left are the T-shirts, and they come from Japan." Hey, Obama, bring back the rock T-shirt manufacturing sector, now!

“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.