Getting the Mix to Work

Hey Rich, I'm a huge fan of your work and love what you do. I can always pick out your mix from a group of others.

I'm an aspiring audio/mix engineer, working and learning new things everyday. If your knee-deep in a mix, and it's just not feeling right coming out of the speakers, where you typically look to get the mix to glue? Specifically, how do you get your kick/snare/drums/bass to glue together to really solidify the groove of the mix?

Obviously, a great recording would be part of the answer but sometimes we have to work with what we've got.