Now, I know it has gone to the level of a cliche to pick your favorite music pieces or performances, but who ever said anything derogatory about a good ol' cliche?

The concept is simple so I'll go first. Mine isn't ordered by favorites, they are just the songs that I think are the undisputed champions of popular music.

- I've Got You Under My Skin
Written By: Cole Porter as performed by Frank Sinatra for the album "Songs for Swingin' Lovers". January 12, 1956
- Night and Day
Written by: Cole Porter for the Musical "The Gay Divorce", as performed by Frank Sinatra for the album "Sinatra and Strings". November 22, 1961
- One for My Baby
Written by: Harlod Arlen & Johnny Mercer for the film "Higher and Higher", as performed by Frank Sinatra for the album "Frank SInatra sings for Only the Lonely". July 25, 1958
- Sing, Sing, Sing
Written by: Louis Prima as performed by the Benny Goodman Orchestra for the January 16, 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert.
- Take the 'A' Train
Written by: William Strayhorn as performed by Duke Ellington and his Orchestra. February 15, 1941
- So What
Written By: Miles Davis as performed by the Miles Davis Sextet for the album "Kind of Blue". March 2, 1959
- Take Five
Written By: Dave Brubeck as performed by Dave Brubeck and Co. for the album "Time Out". 1959.
- Blues in Green
Written By: Miles Davis as performed by the Miles Davis Sextet for the album "Kind of Blue". April 22, 1959
- Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Written by: Richard Rogers & Lorenz Hart for the musical "Pal Joey", as performed by Frank Sinatra for the Album "The Concert Sinatra". May of 1963.
- Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye
Written by: Cole Porter as performed by Ella Fitzgerald for the album "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook". February 7, 1957
- The Gal that Got Away/It Never Entered My Mind Melody:
Written by: Richard Rogers & Lorenz Hart + Harold Arlen & Ira Gershwin as performed by Frank Sinatra for the album "She Shot Me Down". March of 1981.
- Rhapsody in Blue
Written By: George Gershwin for an Aeolian hall concert as performed by either the Paul Whiteman Orchestra or Leonard Bernstein & The CBS Orchestra (?). Years performed: 1924 & 1959.

Barbra Streisand's first ever television special in 1965 - My Name Is Barbra - in its entirety.

The Man That Got Away - by Judy Garland in A Star Is Born.

The Summer Wind - by Frank Sinatra

Crazy/Sweet Dreams/Faded Love - by Patsy Cline.

That's Amore - by Dean Martin.

Apple

The Beatles - Ed Sullivan show. Any.

Nirvana - Unplugged in New York/ December 16, 1993

Led Zeppelin - How The West Was Won/ June 25-27, 1972

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Jimi Plays Berkeley/ May 30, 1970 (Although I haven't heard his performance of 'I Don't Live Today')

Sully, I know I always say this, but DAMN you've got great taste in music!

Mine are in no special order either, and most of them aren't written by the artists I've listed:

-"Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley

-"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Ella Fitzgerald

-"More" by Frank Sinatra

-"Hello Dolly" by Louis Armstrong

-"You Don't Know Me" and "Georgia On My Mind" by Ray Charles

-"Summertime" by Miles Davis

-"Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," "These Foolish Things," and "Straight, No Chaser" by Thelonious Monk

-"Take the A Train," "Blues Etude," "Yessir That's My Baby" and "It Ain't Necessarily So" by Oscar Peterson

-"Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Handful of Keys" by Fats Waller

-"Learnin' the Blues," "Love Is Here To Stay," and "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald-- I love the contrast of their voices.

-"La Vie en Rose" by Edith Piaf-- I was expecting to hear this song in the air on the streets of Paris...

Zia, thank you for that comment. I can't exactly go agianst your taste in music either. You have some simply marvelous songs on there, many of which I've got to meantion later on.

I haven't really head much from Oscar Peterson. He's a great pianist but I haven't heard him but when he backs for other artists.

I need to buy an Ella & Louis CD to hear their rendition of "Love is Here to Stay". I know that her performance of the song is just breathtaking when she does it for the Gershwin songbooks. I do however have an .mp3 of her and Lous singing "Summertime" in my favorite vocal rendition of it. Davis's version has something to it as well.

Louis Armstrong - Wonderful World

Billie Holiday - My Man

Dooley Wilson - As Time Goes By

Frank Sinatra - I'll Never Smile Again

Just naming a few...

No mention of Double-J :p

The Beatles at Shea Stadium, on Ed Sullivan, or on the Apple Rooftops.

Bob Dylan Live in 1964.

Also Neil Young on his Rust Never Sleeps Tour, and any Grateful Dead Show.

I also hear two of my other fav's, Warren Zevon and The Rolling Stones are great too.

I interpreted this question to mean the best live performance I ever saw. My answer will date me, but...
I caught all of the Alan Freed R&R shows between 1956 and 1960 at the Brooklyn Paramount and the Fox. The best and most exciting performance I ever saw was by Little Richard at the Summer 1957 show. Richard was pinnacle. He whipped the audience into such a frenzy that, if he marched everyone out to the Brooklyn Bridge and told them to jump off, they'd have jumped off. The guy was amazing. I'll never forget it.

I didn't realize we were talking about live performances. For me, I guess it would be the all-star jazz concert I saw at Carnegie Hall, probably 1980, maybe '81. It had Lionel Hampton, Herbie Hancock and so many more. However, the highlight of the evening was when Eubie Blake, who was in his 90's at the time, came out and played the Charleston Rag.

The topic is favorite perfances EVER.

I think that we're basically talking about any performances we want, live or not.

Mike Sullivan's own initial list included "...just the songs that I think are the undisputed champions of popular music."

By the way I'd like to add to my own list the following:

Stevie Nicks - 'Edge of Seventeen' (from her debut solo album, Bella Donna).

Live:

Craig Shulman - Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" song - "Bring Him Home."

Art Garfunkel - Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, 1972 - "Bridge Over Troubled Waters"

Recorded:
The four greatest love songs:
"Wavelength" - Van Morrison
"Bell Bottom Blues" - Derek and the Dominoes (Eric Clapton)
"One of These Nights" - The Eagles
"In Your Eyes" - Peter Gabriel

Others:
"Suite Judy Blue Eyes - Crosby, Stills and Nash
"Like a Rolling Stone" - Bob Dylan
"Like a Hurricane" - Neil Young

Allman Brothers Band doing a 60 minute version of Whipping Post before Duane Allman died, when they were the opening act for Frank Zappa & Mothers of Invention in Tallahassee, Florida in 1969.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - "No Woman, No Cry" - Lyceum Ballroom, London July 17, 1975