Say what you will about Hootie and the Blowfish's profound mediocrity — their massive success was merely the launching pad for Darius Rucker's true calling: country. On his Nashville debut, Rucker's rich baritone, sentimental ballads and bright hooks made him the most successful African-American country singer since Charley Pride. Rucker amps up that formula on album number two, delivering a swaggering honky-tonk frat-boy duet with Brad Paisley ("I Don't Care"), a cutesy tale of domestic bliss about sneaking a little nooky while the kids ain't lookin' ("Might Get Lucky") and a road song that finds him pining for sweet tea and chivalry ("Southern State of Mind"). Rucker's country may be little more than Hootie with fiddles, but that's progress.

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.