After you've sampled Can and compared yourself to Maya Angelou, how do you reach new heights of left-field craziness? How about rapping over King Crimson's paranoid prog jam "21st Century Schizoid Man"? Kanye's best single since "Stronger" rides a torrid whipsaw beat, as he takes on his spelunking media image, pinballing from self-aware ("I'm an asshole") to defiant ("Kiss my asshole"). The sentiment is classic Kanye, but he hasn't melted down this brilliantly in a long time.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."