Kelly Clarkson "Miss Independent"

Fox stunned all the television networks when its reality singing contest American Idol: The Search for a Superstar caught fire during the summer of 2002. Rarely did summer television shows ever become a sensation, but Idol connected. The show made Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, and Ryan Seacrest household names. Season 1 of Idol culminated with Kelly Clarkson defeating Justin Guarini on September 2, 2002. While Idol went on to change the way television networks programmed their schedules, it also changed the music business. Artists regularly appeared on the show hoping to promote their new single and theme nights helped introduce older music to a new audience. No format seemed to benefit from Idol more than Adult Contemporary who embraced the show's winners (and losers). Names like Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, Clay Aiken, and Season 1 winner Kelly Clarkson peppered the AC Chart. Clarkson alone charted more than a dozen AC singles including 2002's "Miss Independent" -- a song initially written for Christina Aguilera.

The BoDeans "Closer to Free"

What do you remember about the Fox television show Party of Five? Neve Campbell? Scott Wolf? How about the show's theme song "Closer to Free"? That song, from the group's fifth album, helped make The BoDeans a household name. Originally released in 1993, the song saw a renaissance thanks to Adult Contemporary radio in 1996.

Lionel Richie - "Ballerina Girl"

Remember the Fox reality TV series The Simple Life?  The TV show featured Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie doing manual labor-type jobs.  Soon after the TV show premiered, the two became daily fixtures in the tabloids.  Years before this reality show aired, Lionel Richie wrote the song "Ballerina Girl" for his adopted daughter Nicole.    

Vonda Shepard - "Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow"

Peter Cetera chose Amy Grant over Vonda Shepard for the duet "Next Time I Fall" and then Joan Jett was picked over Vonda for a role in the movie Light of Day, but it was David E. Kelley who helped launch Shepard's career with the Fox-TV show Ally McBeal.  1999's "Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow" was one such song that became an Adult Contemporary hit thanks to Ally McBeal.

Jamie Walters - "Hold On"

Jamie Walters played the mercurial Ray Pruit on Beverly Hills, 90210 and some fans just couldn't separate him from his television character.  He said that fans of 90210 would come up to him on the street and yell at him for throwing Donna down a flight of stairs.  While Ray Pruit may not have been the most likable, Walters' music was.  He scored a #1 hit with "How Do Talk to An Angel" with The Heights in 1993 and then saw "Hold On" become another hit in 1995.  In a strange twist that sounds eerily ripped from an Aaron Spelling-produced script, Walters put music aside and went to work as a paramedic in Los Angeles during the mid-2000s.