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Rob Thomas had the tune in his head for a long time, but it wasn't until he met his wife two years ago that he figured out the words and that it would be a love song. And when singer Thomas and his four bandmates, who make up matchbox twenty, went into a recording studio in Atlanta last August, they already had a notion that the pulsing Bent would be the first single on their second album, mad season by matchbox twenty. "I'm writing continuously," says Thomas, 28. "But Bent was just one of those that, to me, was a radio song."

Thus are hit singles born. Bent quickly became the hottest new song added to radio-station playlists when it made its debut on Apr. 12, building buzz for the release of mad season on May 23. The album follows matchbox's multiplatinum 1996 debut and also comes on the heels of Smooth, the top Grammy-winning single that Thomas co-wrote and performed on Carlos Santana's latest album.