The Blackout All-Stars — "I Like It"

The Blackout All-Stars were a one-off 1994 Latin supergroup assembled by producer Sergio George specifically to record the theme for the 1994 Columbia Pictures film "I Like It Like That," director Darnell Martin's South Bronx story and a landmark — Martin was the first African-American woman to direct a film for a major studio. The ensemble brought together Ray Barretto, Sheila E., Tito Puente, Tito Nieves, Paquito D'Rivera, Dave Valentin and Grover Washington Jr., with Tito Nieves on lead vocals, to record "I Like It" — a salsa remake of "I Like It Like That," the boogaloo classic co-written by Tony Pabón and originally recorded in 1967 by Pete Rodriguez with Pabón singing lead. (It is not the unrelated 1961 Chris Kenner song of the same name — a mix-up nearly everyone makes.)

The single did modest business in 1994, then in 1996 Columbia placed it in a nationally running Burger King commercial; the exposure sent the two-year-old track up the charts to #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997 — a hit made by an ad, not by radio.

The irony: everyone who owned a TV in 1996 can still sing the chorus, and most of them think it's a jingle. The song became the commercial, and the Blackout All-Stars became the footnote.