Natalie Merchant "Wonder"

The names and faces of some guest stars on The Wonder Years will surprise you. For example:

• Dustin Diamond (Screech from Saved by the Bell) was Kevin's classmate, but let's not forget Mark-Paul Gosselear (Zack Morris) also appeared as a classmate on the sitcom
• Juliette Lewis played Wayne's girlfriend Delores in the show's second season
• Punky Brewster herself, Soleil Moon Frye, turned up in one episode
• Kevin's sister Karen dated and later married David Schwimmer on the show, but couldn't return for the show's season finale in 1993 because he was working on a little project later known as Friends
• Before all those Aerosmith videos, Alicia Silverstone starred as Jessica -- a classmate Kevin fancied
• Seth Green played class clown Jimmy Donnelly
• Let's not forget that Grey's Anatomy Doctor McSteamy (Eric Dane) also appeared as a high school jock who dated the girl with the big nose

Aretha Franklin "Who's Zoomin' Who?"

After producing four morning radio shows, I segued to a new evening on-air dating show at WTMX-FM in Chicago during the fall of 2005. With online dating growing in popularity, station bosses sought to capitalize on the trend by having singles find love on the radio every weeknight during a show called "Mix 'n Match On-Air Dating". The premise was similar to the old Dating Game television show: we bring one bachelor or bachelorette into the studio each night and line up three eligible singles on the phone. After a series of questions and getting-to-know-you games, the single person in the studio chooses who they want to go on a date. The radio station paid for the date and we would air updates. Although simple in theory, this job proved to be one of the more challenging of my radio producing career.

Women flocked to sign up for the show whereas men...not so much. At that time, online dating still carried a stigma. Most men wouldn't admit to having a Match.com subscription much less go on the radio to announce their bachelorhood. This led to a challenge for all involved as we had nearly three times the amount of women as men to participate. We still managed to crank out a show five nights a week and hosted numerous singles events throughout Chicago. One challenge was Thursday nights; no one wanted to be on the show on Thursday nights because folks wanted to be home watching the steamy new television show called Grey's Anatomy. I struggled to put quality contestants on the air that night because DVR's and on-demand television shows were still not commonplace, so people watched TV shows live or else counted on their trusty old VHS to record the show. Season one of Grey's Anatomy ended with an episode entitled "Who's Zoomin' Who?"--which shares its title with the 1985 pop song from Aretha Franklin.

Snow Patrol - "Chasing Cars"

Our string of songs featured on Grey's Anatomy continues with Snow Patrol's "Chasing Cars."  The catchy song never quite gets out of neutral, but somehow still works.  I remember this song playing in the background as my then-girlfriend told me that she decided to move to Africa (who moves to Africa?!?).  How does one respond to a statement like that?  I believe stunned silence was my response allowing my brain to capture the lyrics to this song.  Years from now, I wonder if my brain will trigger that same flood of feelings.

Anna Nalick - "Breathe (2 A.M.)

Anna Nalick sounds more like a mysterious condition that affects people who consume too many pain pills, but--no, that's not the case.  The year 2005 first introduced us to Anna and her song "Breathe (2 A.M.)"; thanks to Grey's Anatomy, the song immediately gained airplay on Adult Contemporary radio stations and became Anna's one and only hit.