Week of September 19

A year ago this week, Uncle Kracker was finishing up his run at the top with the song that eventually became the No. 1 song of 2009, "Smile." This week, he lands his third chart-topper in 12 months, as his duet with Kid Rock, "Good to Be Me," moves 2-1. ("Another Love Song" hit the top in the spring.) "Smile" is on its way out of Billboard's Hot 100, falling out of the Top 40 this week after a No. 31 peak on its second chart go-around. (This second Hot 100 run was fueled by a Top 10 country peak and a No. 1 run at Adult Contemporary.)

But the artist who is making the biggest splash this week is Cee Lo Green. As his duet with Fantasia, "The Thrill is Gone," moves 36-31, he leapfrogs in at No. 27 with "Forget You." It's the clean version of a hilariously vulgar song with a fabulous neo-soul groove that earned 3 million views on YouTube in its first week. Billboard calls "Forget You" the inferior edit but I actually think it works just fine. It should become a monster radio hit along the lines of Cee Lo's 2006 work as part of Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy."

The other debut, at No. 40, is also intriguing, but moreso for the odd combination of artists. Carlos Santana, who has hit the Top 40 with more collaborators than just about anyone in the past dozen years, is back, remaking the George Harrison composition "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Santana is joined by neo-soul singer India.Arie and classical cellist Yo Yo Ma. It'll be interesting to see whether this Santana combination does as well as No. 1 collaborations with Rob Thomas, Michelle Branch and ... Cee Lo Green, who joined Santana and Lauryn Hill in 2000 on "Do You Like the Way?"