Reissue digitally remastered from the original masters with expanded artwork which includes new photos & liner notes. Beggars Banquet.

It'd be hard to imagine a happier wish than the one this jazz vocal legend offers her listeners on this urbane-yet-homey collection of holiday favorites. The First Lady of Song recorded these tunes in 1960, at the peak of her interpretive powers. As such, she puts her singular stamp on everything from a sultry vamp like "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve" to the sweet and cozy "The Christmas Song." Even potentially shopworn standards like "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" sound fresher when they're coming from Ella Fitzgerald. —David Sprague

Any lingering doubts as to the depth of Eminem's skills or his potential for raw yet compelling honesty are dispelled on The Eminem Show's first track. Armed with a quicksilver flow and a thundering rhythm track (the record was exec produced by longtime mentor and partner Dr. Dre), "White America" finds Eminem ferociously mauling the hand that feeds him, lambasting his critics, the industry, and the racism that, in many ways, helped make Marshall Mathers more than just another rapper. "Let's do the math," Em sneers, "If I was black I would have sold half/ I could be one of your kids/ Little Eric looks just like this." After the bombast of The Marshall Mathers LP and Eminem's well-noted use of sexual epithets, this kind of material is made more controversial because it actually rings true. From a brutal retort to his long-estranged and equally troubled mother ("Cleaning Out My Closets") to a surprisingly tender ode to his child ("Hailie's Song"), Eminem examines his life, loves, arrests, addictions, failures, and successes with surprising insight, making this a funk-drenched hip-hop confessional well worth the hype. —Amy Linden

"If, after hearing my songs," Lehrer says in this disc's liner notes, "just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while." Makes him sound like a modern punk, eh? Not so, though. Lehrer, ever the king of jolly vitriol, recorded these still potent parodies in the '50s—and the best of them, "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,""The Masochism Tango," and "The Elements" (which joins science with Gilbert & Sullivan) remain both nasty and striking. Musically, Lehrer comes across like a demented Cole Porter, wrapping sophisticated, showy tunes around his acerbic jokes. Lyrically, he's a clear forebear to folks like Phil Ochs and Barry Crimmins, who also cloak their commentary in comedy. —Michael Ruby

Practically BRAND NEW condition, never played, includes original CD, case, and paperwork, First class shipped, ask me for my CD List! :)