“In the Air Tonight” – Phil Collins
This is the obvious choice. It’s been popularized now as Mike Tyson’s “favorite part” of the song in “The Hangover,” but long before anybody had ever even heard of Bradley Cooper, the drum fill in this song around 3:40 had me, and everyone else in the world, waiting on the edge of their driver’s seat in anticipation and beating the shit out of their steering wheels when this totally rad moment finally arrived.

For an added bonus, look up “In the Air Tonight Live” (posted by Sportadic22) on YouTube and watch the ever-creepy Phil Collins milk the moment for all it’s worth in front of thousands of people.

“Coffee” – Aesop Rock (feat. John Darnielle)
The first time I read the track listing for this song I did a double-take. Why is lo-fi folk singer-songwriting god John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats featured in a rap song? Turns out he’s there to turn what would be a pretty standard Aesop Rock track into something way more awesome. In his typical high and nasal register, Darnielle wails in somewhere around 3:11, singing cryptically about Franzia and vampires and closing the song in a totally rad fashion.

“Olsen Olsen” – Sigur Ros
One of the only truly epic songs I can really think of, this eight-minute long song by the best Icelandic band around really kicks into gear around 4:30 when someone starts plunking out the song’s recurrent theme on a piano, followed by a Phil Collins-worthy drum fill, followed by an orchestra and what sounds like a gigantic choir joining in on that same recurrent theme for a totally rad, totally triumphant minute-and-twenty-seconds before gracefully and gradually falling apart.

“I’ve Seen All Good People” – Yes
The world’s coolest/lamest prog band Yes has a lot of songs with moments that could be considered totally rad, but this 1971 track takes the cake at around 2:44 when the band does what can only be described as a synchronized “doo-doo-doo” over and over again to the melody of the song. Though it’s hard to do it justice in text, listen to the song and you’ll know what I mean. It’s a totally rad, feel-good moment that you listen to on repeat just because it makes you feel so sickeningly happy.

“Tightrope” – Yeasayer
This totally rad moment is simple, yet effective. It happens once at 1:23 and again at 1:36 when lead singer Chris Keating somehow makes the word “nevermind” into one of the most earworm-y things in probably all of music history. I’d tell you this moment is totally rad, but I already did in line 1, so nevermind nevermind nevermind nevermind nevermi-i-i-i-ind… (Sorry.)