Songs from Glee

Shakespeare told us that all the world's a stage . . . but as the second decade of the 21st century gets underway, the great bard must stand corrected: all the world's a Glee Club stage. The cult American TV show has now leap-frogged into the global mainstream, with a combination of soapy melodrama and familiar, brilliantly arranged songs (thanks to music producer Adam Anders). Here we look back over Season One and pick out the pearlers, including the sparkling cast version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" (the show's signature tune), and a slow-tempo, torchy cover of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" by Rachel and Shelby. Glee reinvents '80s electro, and adds new shine to Neil Diamond, in Next Steps.

Song choice in Glee — overseen by series cocreator Ryan Murphy — is everything. Murphy's stated goal is to provide "something for everybody" in each episode, and we get a sense of his policy of eclecticism here, as "I Dreamed a Dream" is taken into the stratosphere of melodrama by Shelby and Rachel, Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" is given an energetic New Directions workout, and Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" is enshrined as Puck's first solo for the Glee Club. And with the Artie-led version of "Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats we were given the best excuse for a flash mob since Ferris Bueller took his day off.

If the '80s was all about the free drinks at "Club Tropicana," and the '90s delivered the DJ-dominated Super Club, then the '00s gave us the Glee Club . . . at William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. The trials, tribulations, machinations, and all-round lung-busting am-dram fabulousness of Will, Rachel, Finn, Sue Sylvester & Co. has mushroomed into a global phenomenon, combining the best of all worlds: part Idol, part musical, part high-school soap, all entertainment, the series has cast the songs of Madonna, Lady Gaga, Queen, Bonnie Tyler, and Neil Diamond in a theatrical new light, and has unleashed the inner karaoke diva in viewers the world over. With Season One in the can, and Season Two picking up a head of steam, here's our jazz-handed, move-bustin', sweet-harmonizin' homage to the show's best musical moments so far.