I'm gonna be nitpicky and bitch about something that I noticed fairly often while I was reading the posts on this thread. As a music major it was always etched into my skull by my college professors that the difference between piece and song is that a song has words and a piece doesn't. So, under this criteria, "Fur Elise," pieces by Miles and Trane, Pachelbel's "Canon in D," and several others are NOT songs, they are pieces, and as such are not valid entries in this thread. I don't mean to be a dick, but this is a huge pet peeve that I have.
Also, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" is only a part of a much, much bigger work called the 9th Symphony. To say that it is a work by itself is the same as saying that Michaelangelo's depiction of the creation in the Sistine Chapel is solely the part of the painting where God is giving man life with his finger; it is the culminating part of a much larger work, but it is not the entire work in and of itself. Actually, Beethoven never intended for his symphonies to be excerpted; he saw each of his symphonies as indivisible works. While the choral setting of Schiller's Ode to Joy is amazing by itself, it is electrifying when heard in the context of the symphony as the culminating part of a massive work. I get goosebumps every time I listen to the 9th and get to the chorale. Shit, I'm getting chills just sitting here thinking about it.
OK, this post has gotten long enough and I have way too many nominations to include here, so I'll just have to do so in another post.
