Les Paul and Mary Ford – How High the Moon
Billie Holiday – Strange Fruit
Duke Ellington – It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing
Yes – Roundabout
Mozart – Symphony 40 in G min KV 550
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
The Kinks – You Really Got Me
Animal Collective – Brother Sport
Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove
The Beatles – A Day in The Life
Nirvana – Heart-shaped Box
The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?
The Beach Boys – Good Vibrations
These songs/pieces are, in my mind, all iconic, either for their production value, or emblematic of their time periods, or just the flowering of genius. Each one of these songs struck many people as awesome achievements when they first heard them, no matter if they were alive at the time or not.