The hardest-self-empowering woman in show business takes it all back to where she began, with a soulful pep talk about being your own best friend. "Girl on Fire," the first single and title track from Mrs. Swizz Beatz's upcoming album, comes in three different versions, the best of which is a straight up Eighties-style power ballad in Phil Collins mode: There are huge drums, crashing piano chords, a sky-scraping "oh-oh-oh" refrain, and the motto "This girl is on fire," plus a Nicki Minaj cameo in which she revisits her well-worn Marilyn Monroe obsession. Keys doesn't summon the lung power of a song like "No One," yet she sounds sisterly and bighearted: Give her credit for going Full Phil on this one.

Listen to "Girl on Fire (Inferno Version)":

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.