“Why be predictable?,” Willie Nelson asked Columbia Records executive Nick Blackburn, after the latter resisted the Red Headed Stranger’s decision to make an album of classic pop tunes. Talk about outlaw country. Cutting against the genre’s traditions and Music Row conventions, Nelson’s Stardust remains a genius-level creation as well as the icon’s most commercially successful release, a truly gorgeous record infused with ultimate respect for composers and lyrics and many of the finest performances of his career. It is a quintessential part of any catalog.