What the hell am I doing here?

The artist currently known as Prince covered Radiohead's "Creep" at the Coachella Festival this past weekend. Watching the video, it struck me how much it sounded like a Prince song. Like a song it made sense for Prince to perform.

The more I thought about it, though, it dawned on me that "Creep" is probably one of those classic for-all-time songs now: a song that anyone can sing and get some great emotional mileage out of: A New American Standard. Like "Unchained Melody" or "Hallelujah" or "Yesterday" it's just an undeniably great song thats going to trigger a response, no matter who's performing it. I could see a middle school chorus recital opening with "Creep" as soon as 2012.

What defines a classic song? I don't know. I guess it can't be a song that's dependent on a particular style of performance, so that leaves out all of rap. It has to be a song that could be enjoyed by whoever hears it, no matter the age. It can't be a song that only makes sense when performed by one artist or group.

... I think "Satisfaction" may be the only classic Stones song. Well that and "Time Is On My Side"...

I'm wondering now what other future classics may have sprouted up in the 90s-00s unnoticed. "Hey Ya" - doubtful. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - only makes sense coming from Kurt Cobain.

All I can come up with is that R. Kelly song from Space Jam. I'm pretty sure both Mariah Carey and Oasis have at least one classic in their respective songbooks, but I'm not sure which it is yet.

So what songs from 1990-today will we be hearing our genetically-manipulated mulatto superbeing grandchildren mangling in 50 years?

Also, what song from the past 20 years is crying out the most for a genre-bending cover version?