Jon Secada "Stop"

As Rob Thomas and Santana's "Smooth" dominated the radio well into Y2K, Jon Secada followed suit with his spicy uptempo "Stop". With an abundance of "Latin Explosion" artists like Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and Christina Aguilera's all over the radio at the time, "Stop" got lost in the shuffle and the song barely registered on the Adult Contemporary Chart.

Michelle Branch "All You Wanted"

Sometimes forgotten in the madness of late-2001 is singer Michelle Branch. That year she turned in one of her best efforts with "All You Wanted". The angst-ridden tune packed with a sound similar to one of her idols, Alanis Morrisette, soared to #6 on the Hot 100 (#30 on Adult Contemporary Chart). The song became her biggest solo hit. A year prior, she was opening for Hanson and, in the years following, Branch would strike gold in duets with the legendary Carlos Santana ("The Game of Love" and "I'm Feeling You"). Aside from that, she turned up on television shows such as Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer before seguing into country music in a band called The Wreckers before returning to her pop-rock roots in the 2010s. Sometimes the only people who truly get you are those who do what you do and Branch did just that. She found her soulmate in fellow musician Patrick Carney of The Black Keys and the two later married.

Santana f/ Rob Thomas "Smooth"

Every hour, a radio station airs something called the Legal ID which is just that: a legally mandated station identification. The Legal ID airs as close to the top-of-the-hour as possible and includes the station's call letters and licensed city of broadcast. In the case of the former WENS-FM in Indianapolis, I heard their Legal ID countless times during my many drives to and from Indiana University in Bloomington. It said: "97-point-1, W-E-N-S Shelbyville, Indianapolis. The flagship station of Emmis Communications." WENS-FM was licensed to Shelbyville, Indiana but broadcast out of Emmis' studios in Indianapolis.

For years, Production Directors spent lots of time crafting big, booming Legal ID's, but that changed when the ratings system morphed from diaries to Personal People Meters (PPM) in the late-2000s. Listeners no longer had to write down what stations they listed to since the PPM (a device that looks like a pager) now automatically records that information. This caused some stations to bury their Legal ID within a commercial break.

In 2006, I voiced a Legal ID for a radio station, and it proudly aired every hour until 2015 until the station switched formats and, ultimately, call letters. The day before the switch, I joked to my boss that my mom would be very upset if she didn't hear her son do the hourly Legal ID. He told me not to worry because I could voice the new Legal ID. The next morning at 10:00AM, the first of my five new Legal IDs started airing. It continues to air today much to the delight of Stephani, a part-time DJ at our sister-station. She liked them so much that I gave her what amounted to the worst cheapest birthday gift ever: an MP3 of said Legal IDs. Happy birthday, Stephani!

Santana & Michelle Branch - "I'm Feeling You"

After finding success with Rob Thomas in "Smooth", Santana resurrected the formula a couple years later with Michelle Branch for "The Game of Love".  Seeing a nice little pattern here, he gave Michelle a call in 2005 and the two cranked out "I'm Feeling You".  Though not as big of a hit as previous duets, the song did climb to #5 on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Santana f/ Chad Kroeger - "Into The Night"

Think of a wildly successful band that's hated almost more than it's loved.  Justin Beiber?  You could probably put him at the top of the notorious list up until his most current album.  How about Nickelback?  Bingo!  Despite the band's haters, Nickelback is the second-best selling foreign act in the US (next to The Beatles!) and has racked up more than 50 million album sales worldwide.  It's tough to argue with numbers like that, yet Nickelback always seems to turn up near the top of informal lists of most-disliked bands.  Lead singer Chad Kroeger joined forces with guitar legend Carlos Santana for one of a few new tracks on Santana's Ultimate Santana compilation disc.  The result was a tune that was all over the radio in 2007.