OneRepublic "Apologize"

The man responsible for helping produce hits for Justin Timberlake, Ginuwine and Missy Elliott also gets props from OneRepublic. Producer, singer songwriter Timbaland added vocals and percussion to "Apologize" and turned it into a world-wide hit in late-2007. The song spent 25 weeks in the Top 10.

Taylor Swift "Teardrops on My Guitar"

A close examination of this photo shows Taylor Swift and her doppelganger. Meet Julie Condra, a model and actress, who could be Taylor Swift's body double. Fans of the cult-'90s series Eerie, Indiana may recognize Condra who left The Wonder Years in 1991to join the short-lived television show. Credit to a California country radio station with a terrible name (Froggy 92.9) for posting the side-by-side picture of Swift and Condra from her role as Madeline Adams on The Wonder Years.

Maroon 5 "Makes Me Wonder"

My college roommate Brian joked that he graduated from the School of Hard Knocks. Brian epitomized laziness and blatantly flaunted it. While the rest of us attended class all day, Brian laid on our couch watching television. His filth from lack of showering led to there being an outline of Brian's body on our couch cushions. Unlike most people, Brian embraced his funk, filthiness and futile attempts at going to class. His secret was: show up on the first day of class to get the syllabus, make a note of when the tests are and only return to class on those days. Somehow, Brian navigated through the prestigious business program at Indiana University. During our senior year of college, recruiters filled up our voicemail each day with job offers for Brian. Unsettling is the kindest word I can use to describe how the other four of us roommates felt. 

Too drunk from the evening before graduation when we all played Family Feud and Brian pretended to be Richard Dawson in an effort to kiss all of our female friends, Brian slept through commencement. While Brian snoozed, his proud parents looked at each passing student at the Indiana University football stadium hoping to catch a glimpse of their son. My dad somehow spotted me among the thousands of other caps and gowns so I'm sure Brian's parents wondered where their son was. Moments before our respective families arrived for the reception at our apartment, Brian frantically barreled toward me asking what the commence address was about -- just in case his parents asked about it. While I shared my thoughts with him, I noticed his gown was on inside-out. Should I tell him, I wondered. Eventually, I did -- but part of me wanted his parents to question why he looked so disheveled.

A few weeks after graduation, we all lost contact with Brian. I assumed he accepted one of the numerous job offers extended his way and moved to Chicago. He never returned to clean out his bedroom -- which was a garage converted into a bedroom. On moving day, my roommates threw all of his forgotten items away -- including a pair of tighty-whitey underpants that had mushrooms growing out of them.

A few months later, I emailed Brian hoping to hear that he was okay and working. I never received a response. It wasn't until our 10-year high school graduation when I learned karma finally caught up with Brian -- apparently he flunked his senior year of college and didn't actually graduate for another five years (!). How he managed to be on the nine-year plan still baffles me today. In fact, I still wonder what became of Brian and hope he's doing ok...

Paolo Nutini "New Shoes"

Being a successful pop artist in the U.K. doesn't always translate into success over the pond. Enter Exhibit A: Paolo Nutini (who was once dubbed "Scotland's biggest musician"). His biggest hit stateside was the catchy "New Shoes" -- a song tailor-made for Payless or Kinney Shoe Stores -- the song barely cracked the Billboard Pop 100 in 2007.

The Last Goodnight - "Pictures of You"

FLASHBACK:
Remember the days when we took pictures with digital cameras and then had to plug in some USB cable to "download" said pictures to your desktop computer?  That's so 2007.

Marié Digby - "Umbrella"

Marie Digby, pronounced "Mahr-E-ay", gained fame for her cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella" in 2007.  "Umbrella" was one of many covers Digby posted to her YouTube channel and is her most successful with more than 20,000,000 views.  The song found airplay on Hot Adult Contemporary radio stations that weren't quite comfortable spinning Rihanna during that time.  

John Legend - "P.D.A (We Just Don't Care)"

John Legend performed during a morning show broadcast for the Hot Adult Contemporary radio station where I worked in 2007.  At that time, Legend was a relatively unknown outside the R&B format and was promoting "P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care)"--his third single from his Once Again album.  A year earlier, I heard the album in its entirety and declared myself a big fan of Legend's.  It was quite an honor during that rainy April morning in 2007 when I had to to stand in the rain with an umbrella in hand while walking Legend from his limo to his dressing room for the morning show broadcast.  Later, I awkwardly asked for a photo.  Fortunately for me, I got the photo of me and John.  Unfortunately for him, "P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care)" never charted in the US.

John Waite - "Missing You"

When a guy says that he "ain't missing you", he's definitely missing you.  Waite's 1984 love letter was repackaged in 2007 as a country duet with Alison Krauss.  

Newton Faulkner - "Dream Catch Me"

My old Dell laptop has been dying a slow death for the past handful of years now.  Last Christmas, I made the switch to a new Dell meaning I was no longer running on the Vista platform and now had the much-ballyhooed/maligned Windows 10.   While my day-to-day computer work moved to my new Dell, I left iTunes untouched on my old laptop because, frankly, I knew that it would be a complete clusterfuck.  The straightforward directions from Apple made the process appear simple and seamless.  The reality was quite different.  After doing exactly what Apple.com suggested, my music transferred over successfully.  The problem was that only about one-third of my massive music collection made the trek.  I don't know why the other songs decided they didn't want to join the party.  So, I tried again only to have my playlists not transfer.  A third attempt yielded my entire music library making the trek including multiple copies of the majority of my songs, but again no playlists.  So, I manually deleted well over 1,000 duplicates of songs.  Next up, go in and trim the audio and recreate all my playlists.  (Why the hell haven't I just make the switch to Spotify, you're asking.  Again, I don't have a reasonable answer.)  I did discover many songs I thought I deleted years ago.  One such song came from English singer-songwriter Newton Fulkner.  Newton made the lunchtime concert circuit back in 2007, and I was graced with a free lunch, music, and a shiny new CD called Hand Built By Robots.  "Dream Catch Me" achieved success over the pond, but never really found an audience in the States.  Now, back to the clusterfuck known as iTunes...

Anthony David - "Something About You"

While sitting at my neighborhood Walgreens one rainy spring evening, a familiar song played over the loudspeaker.  I immediately recognized the song was "Something About You", but I didn't know the man's voice singing.  He almost sounded like Seal.  One quick trip to Google revealed the singer's name was R&B singer Anthony David (whose name sounds like a place you would go to get your hair done).  While the Cary Brothers successfully remade this song, add Anthony David's name to artists who also remade the '80s song without ruining it.

Leona Lewis - "Bleeding Love"

How did Leona Lewis' career not take off?  As evidenced by her first big hit "Bleeding Love", the girl can sing.  Her signature ballad hit #1 in 35 countries--a feat that only Elton John has achieved.  Her style has drawn comparisons to Mariah Carey.  Oh, and she's drop-dead gorgeous.  

John Mellencamp - "Our Country"

Watching the 2006 MLB Playoffs on television meant that you were subjected to a Chevy commercial during every inning.  Chevy used John Mellencamp's "Our Country" as the musical accompaniment to their truck commercials that seemed to air after every pitch.  By the end of the Divisional Series, I never wanted to hear Mellencamp's "Our Country" again.

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.

Corinne Bailey Rae - "Put Your Records On"

Lunchtime concerts are common at radio stations: record reps bring an emerging artists to the station to perform a couple new songs during the noon hour all in hopes of getting that elusive "add" from the Programming department.  Back in 2007, I had the pleasure of seeing Corinne Bailey Rae perform "Put Your Records On" during a lunchtime concert.  Her team managed to transform our stale corporate conference room into a performance area complete with mood lighting and rose petals strewn about the room.  Corinne's performance was one of the few that really stuck with me throughout the years (and it wasn't because there was free chocolate chips cookies during the show).  While the song earned two Grammy nominations, we never heard from Corinne again.

Rob Thomas - "Little Wonders"

I once saw Rob Thomas perform alongside Goo Goo Dolls at Ravinia Festival.  Someone pointed out that when Rob Thomas sings, he gets "crazy eyes".  I haven't been able to erase that image from my brain.

Buckcherry - "Sorry"

I still cannot hear Buckcherry's melodramatic ballad "Sorry" without also hearing the voice of Marty Moose from "National Lampoon's Vacation".  After driving his family in a metallic pea green station wagon from Chicago to California, Clark Griswold finally makes it to Wally World where he's met by the park's mascot with a note saying to push the button.  One push of the button was all it took to crush Clark's dreams as the moose said, "Sorry folks, the park's closed for two weeks to clean and repair America's favorite family fun park.  Sorry. Uh-hu-uh-hu-uh-hu."

OK Go - "Here It Goes Again"

Whereas MTV and VH-1 has mostly abandoned music videos, the alternative rock group OK Go has capitalized on the power of the music video.  Their 2007 "Here It Goes Again" was a hit thanks largely in part to a video that featured treadmills.  In 2016, the group re-surfaced in the YouTube-o-sphere with another video for the song "Upside Down & Inside Out".  The video was shot in zero-gravity and went viral.

Natasha Bedingfield - "Pocket Full of Sunshine"

Am I the only one who hears the sound a phone makes when it's off the hook in "Pocket Full of Sunshine"?

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.