Fabulous Flameout It is a testament to the greatness of Rick James' greatest hit, Super Freak, that those who would surely take offense were they to read the song's lyrics on the page-"She's a very kinky girl/ The kind you don't take home to mother"-probably danced to it at their wedding. James died of a heart attack that was most likely hastened by the "at least nine drugs" coroners found in his system. He was never a model of restraint. Raised in Buffalo, N.Y., by a single mother who ran numbers for the mob, James first discovered he could move a crowd at a school talent show. After a draft-dodging sojourn to Canada, he returned to the U.S. and signed a deal with Motown. (His uncle, Melvin Franklin, was an original member of the Temptations.) In 1981 James released Super Freak, his masterpiece about a sex-starved groupie, and for a moment, he eclipsed Prince as rock's libidinal funk hero. The rest of his life, though, was spent battling a cocaine addiction fueled by his Super Freak royalties. James laughed when comedian Dave Chappelle mocked him as a high priest of lost talent and lasciviousness; he thought Chappelle should play him in the movie of his life. You can guess what James wanted to call it.
For sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his ten-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year