BBMak: 'Back Here,' Baby

Back in the early part of the decade—amid the musical youth pop boom of Britney, 'N Sync, Christina, Backstreet Boys, 98 Degrees and the like—Brit trio BBMak stormed the states with single "Back Here," which reached the top 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 at AC. Follow-ups "Still On Your Side" and "Ghost of You and Me" were also top 40 hits, the latter reaching the AC top 10. In all, the trio of Christian Burns, Mark Barry and Ste McNally sold nearly 3 million copies of full-length "Sooner Or Later" and "Into Your Head" in the U.S.

It was also a boom period for me at Billboard, covering the hell out of the youth explosion through my weekly radio column "Airwaves" and throughout the mag. I gave BBMak its first stateside press after dinner with the guys and manager Diane (album "Into Your Head" was my No. 8 critic's pick of 2002), and I was able to witness their rise in a more personal way than I had covered any artist: warming up for Britney, scoring their hits, playing top 40 Z100's stadium Zootopia concert—with countless lunches, dinners and nights out with the guys, including a celebration of my 40th bday. In short, they became friends.

Alas, all good things in the pop pantheon reach their peak and BBMak eventually moved on and are now working on solo projects. Publicist Brad Taylor is now repping Christian Burns on his debut album and brought him to Lunasa Friday for a wondrously warm reunion that absolutely made my night.(Above, Mark, Ste and Christian with Ayhan and me, 2002.)