2003: #1 - "Ignition (Remix)"

Running through a list of things that might happen at a club with R Kelly probably would run well over the three minutes, but here, he distills the essence of an awesome night into the most perfect pop nugget of the decade - at 3:07, it almost guarantees that you have to hit replay to hear it all again. It's like someone's incessant Facebook updating that's actually worth reading.

And his soulful storytelling (or live-blogging?) is so smooth, likeable and real that you almost don't even realize that anything else is going on in the song. But there definitely are a few choice moments, like the snare hits on "F*** somebody", and also the song hits its stunning peak on the chorus. Because the whole song is one long hook, it's almost as if those drums in there exist to let us know, "Yeah, this is the chorus" in case we were still too caught up in the verses or bridges.

We were in our early 20's when the remix to "Ignition" came out, and though a good night out for us was probably nothing compared to the time R Kelly was having, at least we had this to aspire to, even when things seemed grim. Thanks, Kells.