The Cure "Just Like Heaven"

It's no wonder so many artists cover "Just Like Heaven" in concert. Robert Smith calls the upbeat ditty the best pop song and strongest work The Cure has ever done.

Green Day "Wake Me Up When September Ends"

Happy September Eve! Wake up and prepare yourself for all the Green Day memes to begin.

No Doubt "Just A Girl"

The word "just" could be severely misinterpreted. When you overhear someone saying, "I'm just going to homecoming with Todd...", it could mean:

1. I'm not very exciting about going to the dance with Todd, but he was available.
2. I was planning to go to the homecoming dance with a group of people but chose Todd.
3. I'm merely attending the homecoming dance with Todd and then going home.

Let's face it, #1 is the only real explanation, right? Unfortunately for my homecoming date (in 1993), my friend (we'll call him "Russell") overheard her and became upset with her. He sternly informed her that she wasn't "just going with Todd" -- instead she was very lucky to be going with Todd. This resulted in a flurry of phone calls from Russell and my date to explain what happened and why. Although we went to homecoming and another dance a few months later, the two of us never exited the dreaded "friend-zone". It hurt at the time, but it showed me how lucky I was to have friends stand up for me. Years later, things with Russell would take a turn...for the worse. I'll explain tomorrow.

The Verve "Bittersweet Symphony"

The year 1997 saw popular music from The Verve Pipe and The Verve. "Freshmen" was the alt-rock single from The Verve while "Bittersweet Symphony" charted from The Verve. "Freshmen" originally was recorded in 1992 but got a fresh coat of paint in 1997. Meanwhile The Verve had to pass all royalties from "Bittersweet Symphony" to The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards for sampling an orchestral version of their song "The Last Time". The Verve didn't ask permission and then had to pay after the fact by adding Jagger and Ashcroft as writers of the song. Nearly 22 years later, Mick and Keith stopped payment and Richard Ashcroft of The Verve is finally getting paid.

No Doubt "Underneath It All"

Adult Contemporary radio stations helped buoy No Doubt's "Underneath It All" into a hit in 2002. In fact, the tune became the band's biggest hit in the United States. Yes, even bigger than "Don't Speak". The group wrote the song while in Jamaica which likely helped to influence the tune's ska sound.

Barenaked Ladies "Pinch Me"

In another case of "Oh, no...I guess I'm not young anymore", '90s radio staples Hootie & the Blowfish will team up with Barenaked Ladies for a 2019 tour. Their forthcoming "Group Therapy Tour" will celebrate the 25th anniversary (hot damn, 25 years ?!?) of Hootie's super-duper mega-successful Cracked Rear View. Yes, the album that featured five singles Adult Contemporary radio stations played to death. As a young radio intern during the fall of '95, listeners would send faxes to the radio station begging to stop playing Hootie songs. In fact, I think it's a brilliant promotional idea where you promise listeners you won't play a certain artist's music for an entire day/weekend -- think: "No Adele Weekend" or "Taylor Swiftless Tuesday". It could happen...

Counting Crows "A Long December"

When I think about months that drag on forever, December never comes to mind. Enter January who says "hold my beer"...

Collective Soul "The World I Know"

"The World I Know" actually saved someone's life. The following comment sits on SongMeanings.com's page for Collective Soul's 1996 hit song:

"A few months ago I was as low as I have ever been. Everything in my life was going wrong. I decided that the only thing for me to do is to kill myself. I decided that I would jump off my appartment roof. Then I heard this song and the lyrics made me change my mind. To me this song is about some guy that was at his personal low, and when he was about to take the jump, he realized that he knows this world and so he changed his mind because the world isn't that bad after all." 

Cranberries "Linger"

Every emotion during those formidable teenage years gets magnified because those feelings (mixed with out of control hormones) are new. Having never dealt with them before, we find ourselves wrapped up in things that later in life would seem to be no big deal. In turn, music from those teenage years become a part of us. They become as much a part of our identity as our names and become locked into our memories so much so that decades later we can hear a song from our youth and immediately get transported back in time.

Gin Blossums "Found Out About You"

I first remember hearing the Gin Blossums during Spring Break 1994. Their song, "Found Out About You", was all over the radio that week I spent in Florida. Never mind that the song was originally recorded five years prior for the group's debut album Dusted, the Gin Blossums also included it on their second album, New Miserable Experience. The song was the album's fifth single and went on to be a Top 10 hit on the Alternative, Mainstream Hot 100 and Rock Charts.

Van Morrison "Someone Like You"

"HELP" read the subject line from my friend Laura.

"I'm calling in a favor," her email said. "We're thinking about wedding songs...do you have any cool ideas for that?" she pleaded.

Laura, who once lived next door to me, hung out with me and my two roommates during the three years we were neighbors. We all lived on the first floor of a two-flat in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood that we lovingly referred to as "Club 1228" (the address was 1228). The building itself was a conversation piece as giant cement gargoyles that wore Cubs baseball caps adorned the top of our building. People were always stopping in front of our apartment to take pictures (long before the term "selfie" existed). Upstairs from our apartment, lived our landlord lived as well as a shady fellow named "Snow Ball" who wore an ankle bracelet after serving time for a white-collar crime. We never asked why he had that nickname out of fear for the answer. That aside, those handful of years contained some of my favorite memories from the carefree days of my mid-twenties.

Even though we rarely saw her date anyone during our years as neighbors, Laura was a catch. She was an attractive and tall blonde who taught Spanish and had a heart of gold. She always wore a smile, had an infectious laugh and never seemed to have a bad day. I knew she'd eventually meet someone who'd sweep her off her feet.

Enter Match.com and a man named Brian. The two connected on Match during a time when online dating was still considered taboo ("We met on Match," Laura once whispered to me when I finally met her fiance.). Online dating was still in its infancy stage and hadn't become socially acceptable as it is today. After months of dating, Brian proposed and the two started planning for their big wedding day.

Selecting a song for the first and father-daughter dance wasn't easy, so I happily provided Laura with a list of non-cliche songs that included "If I Ain't Got You" from Alicia Keys, "Come Away With Me" from Norah Jones, "Forever My Friend" from Ray LaMontagne, and "Someone Like You" from Van Morrison--a 1987 ballad destined for wedding receptions all across the globe.

The following summer, Laura's wedding day finally arrived. Her venue was a charming old barn in the middle of nowhere in Southwest Michigan that had been converted into an event space. In fact, I would return to this barn five years later when my other friends, Jeff and Kristi, married.

After arriving in the nearby town where the hotel sat, my girlfriend and I found a diner and grabbed lunch. Just as we finished eating, a wave of panic hit me. In a hurry to leave on time, I stupidly left my suit hanging on my bedroom door...nearly 3 hours away! How could I forget my clothes for a wedding?!? I quickly paid for our meal and then scurried off to the nearest JC Penney in a nearby shopping mall. With approximately two hours to shop, return to the hotel, get dressed, and then board the shuttle to the wedding venue, there was absolutely no time to spare. After trying on dozens of dress pants that didn't quite fit, I settled on a pair that were about a half-inch too short. I begrudgingly bought the floods, found a shirt and tie, and then headed back to the hotel. After getting ready, we came downstairs to more bad news: we missed the wedding shuttle. After asking the hotel clerk if there were any cabs in town, she chuckled and said, "No" but phoned a chauffeur knew. Feeling like a complete loser who forgot his clothes, missed the shuttle and now stood wearing pants that didn't quite fit, this night had to get better, right? Moments later, I locked eyes with a guy standing in the hotel lobby who looked vaguely familiar.

"Dave?" I asked.

"Todd?" he curiously shot back. "What are you doing here?"

After explaining to him how my suit was hanging comfortably in my Chicago condo and how we hurriedly shopped for clothes and, in turn, missed the shuttle, he and his date laughed.

"Do you need a ride?" he said.

"YEAH!" I told him in a tone much like Laura's subject line of "HELP".

The four of us jumped into Dave's car and made it in time for Laura's big day. (I did, by the way, gave the hotel clerk $20 to give to the chauffeur we never ended up using.)

During dinner, the folks at our table thoroughly enjoyed hearing about my misadventures of the day and kindly complimented my JC Penney outfit. Soon thereafter, Laura and Brian entered the dance floor for their long-awaited first dance. As their wedding DJ fired up "Someone Like Me" from Van Morrison, I gasped. "They're using MY song!" I told everyone at my table (who clearly thought I was nuts). After all the day's drama, seeing the two of them dance made everything right with the world. Today, Laura and Brian have two adorable children, and my JC Penney slacks still don't fit.

Soul Asylum "Runaway Train"

Most high school teenagers returned home from a weekend night out smelling of sex, drugs or cigarettes. In my (and my friend John's) case, we came home with the curious scent of diesel fuel. Allow me to explain. The two of us were train fanatics (lovingly referred to as "rail fans") and grew up alongside a short line railroad that dotted past our subdivision. The once proud mainline railroad tracks turned into a weedy and forgotten line that shipped auto parts to a couple Ford plants in the area. John and I spent countless days walking the rusted rails that connected our small Indiana town to a series of nearby towns. Our daily trek turned into weekly and infrequent treks as we eventually grew up and started dating, going to parties and doing what "normal" teenagers do on weekends. Occasionally, we'd still make a late night walk down the tracks on late Saturday nights when the train did not run. Since we attended different high schools, our walks provided us the opportunity to talk and catch up on each other's lives.

During one cold Saturday night walk, we decided to escape from the cold and sought shelter. Seeing that no trains ran on Saturday nights, we climbed inside the unlocked idling locomotive that was parked in the freight yard on the outskirts of town and defrosted. The two of us chatted while also keeping our eyes on car traffic traveling through the rural roads near the rail yard. Any car that turned off the main road and onto the side road made my heart speed up a bit because the side road connected to a rock road that led to the rail yard where we were currently trespassing. After nearly a dozen cars turned onto the side road, our worst fears came true. A car slowed after turning onto the side road and then made the dreaded right turn onto the road toward the rail yard where John and I sat in a locomotive. Without hesitation, the two of us bolted out of the locomotive cab and started running down the railroad tracks. Neither of us looked back as we both ran for nearly five minutes.

Once the two of us made it out of the yard and onto the old mainline track, we stopped to catch our breath and voiced our wonder if the car that pulled into the lot was a railroad employee or just someone taking a random shortcut. After getting to a safe distance far enough away but within eye shot of the rail yard office, we both noticed a car parked outside the office. It was definitely a railroad employee. We believed we were in the clear and headed for home.

About ten minutes or so later, a nagging feeling kept making me feel like the two of us were being followed. I briefly turned my head and, over my shoulder, saw two headlights approaching us. The railroad police! (Yes, there is such a thing as the railroad police.) After years of walking these rails (also known as trespassing), we finally were suspects of the railroad police and, worse yet, they were on our tails. John and I again started sprinting toward home (a good mile in the distance)...but first, we had to cross the railroad tower that sat in our way.

Underneath the busy Route 41 bridge sat a tower where an operator worked to keep trains from running into one another by throwing switches and tracking the numerous local trains that passed through the area. As John and I approached this tower, we noticed the operator turned on every exterior light. Passing the tower was the only way to outrun the police, and our only route home. We both zipped up our coats and lowered our baseball caps as we entered the brightness of the tower. I expected to see a police cruiser parked at the tower as I sprinted past the tower. Thankfully, there was no police car, but the tower operator stood tall in the upstairs window keeping watch as John and I continued our mad dash home. We managed to outrun the approaching railroad police car and the tower operator, and were almost home.

Before finally reaching the park where an hour ago we casually entered these railroad tracks, we knew one final obstacle could potentially block us. Another road paralleled the tracks and we feared another police cruiser would be waiting for us. Before reaching the park, we detoured through a neighboring forest and snaked our way to a small creek where we turned and ended up in the backyard of another friend's home. With no sign of the police, we quickly returned to the streets and made it to our respective homes. We both had a difficult time sleeping that night.

R.E.M. "The One I Love"

Some people know R.E.M.'s song, "The One I Love", by its true title while others simply refer to it as the song where lead singer Michael Stipe yells "FIRE!".

10,000 Maniacs "These Are Days"

Even though Natalie Merchant sings "These are the days..." in the song's opening line, the title actually is "These Are Days". Any person graduating from high school or college during the early to mid-'90s likely got weepy listening to the lyrics --they're akin to Macklemore and Kesha's current hit, "Good 'Ol Days".

The morning of the final radio show I produced in 2004 combined nearly every imaginable emotion. It's unusual that you know it's your last show but, in this instance, we all knew (even though our bosses didn't tell us) and still promised to do the best show and go out on top. As the hour turned to 9:00 A.M., the show became more music-intensive. At some point in our final hour, "These Are Days" played and a lump formed in my throat. Within minutes, I would no longer work with two of the most talented folks from that little studio where we broadcast the best little radio show (no one in Chicago knew). I learned so much working together during those early hours. Lessons about life, comedy and the power of family happened daily. Heck, at this point, the three of us in that room were family.

By 9:50 A.M., the morning host turned on the mic one last time to say "goodbye" and he immediately broke down in tears. It actually caught me off guard and knocked me out of my emotional state. I had to be strong, I thought to myself. Between tears, he thanked our listeners, thanked management for the opportunity and then signed off. After a quick group hug, the last thing I remember was watching every single phone line into the radio station light up and flash continuously until our boss walked into the studio and escorted us out of the building. It was my first time being "on the beach"...

Third Eye Blind "Jumper"

Everyone's got to face down the demons

Maybe today we can put the past away

Incubus "Drive"

Chicago's volatile airwaves changed yet again on April 2, 2001 when, after weeks of stunting, 97.1FM became The Drive. Armed with a quarter of a million dollars in research, The Drive set out a new journey for Classic Rock in Chicago -- the station featured no contests, no morning show and no hype...just rock 'n roll. The station's playlist dug deeper than your standard "Hotel California" and "Layla"classic rock songs to bring back those deep cuts that disappeared from radio at the time. The voice of The Drive belonged to Nick Michaels--the ultimate storyteller who made the music and the listener the star. Given its no-hype persona, no voice but Michaels would do. His no-nonsense delivery when saying "this is the soundtrack of our lives" still resonates today. Sadly, Michaels passed away of a heart attack on May 26, 2018.

John Mayer "No Such Thing"

Q: Do radio stations take requests?

A: They take them, but 99% of the time they don't actually play them.

Q: Why not?

A: Most playlists are determined well in advance.

Q: What do you mean?

A: Radio stations "test" songs using auditorium testing (or other means) and develop a playlist of songs that score as "familiar" and "likable". From there, a station has a list of (usually 300) songs they deem "safe" that gets played.

Q: So why do DJs always say that they'll "try to get that song on"?

A: Because they're being nice.

Q: So there's no such thing as a request that actually gets played.

A: Not really although people tend to request songs that are current and would likely be played anyway. 

Q: I see.  

Faith Hill "Cry"

Faith Hill spent the majority of her early career toeing the line between Country and Adult Contemporary artist. Her 2002 ballad "Cry" found most of its success on the Adult Contemporary Chart. The song sat in the #1 spot for 11 weeks. Despite this, the song netted Hill a Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.

Smash Mouth "All Star"

I remember when "All Star" from Smash Mouth came out in 1999, my colleague wondered aloud why Major League Baseball didn't buy the rights to the song to promote the 1999 MLB All Star Game. He's right, you know.

Sarah McLachlan "I Will Remember You"

If at first you don't succeed, try try again. In 1995, Sarah McLachlan recorded the somber "I Will Remember You" for inclusion on the Brothers McMullen Soundtrack. At the time, the ballad barely registered as a hit (#65 on the Hot 100). When McLachlan re-released a slightly more uptempo live version in 1999, the song soared to #14 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.