Most achingly-beautiful music

Some may laugh at this one, but oh well! A few years ago, I think it was the Grammy Awards, Lucianno Pavorotti was to perform but became ill at the last minute. Aretha Franklin volunteered to sing the same piece of music and did so. I've never been more moved by a vocal performance before or since. It may have been a combination of the circumstances plus Ms. Franklin's unbelievable voice. I have no explanation. It was truly moving as well as achingly-beautiful.

Mazzy Star's "Fade into you" is a great song with beautifully haunting vocals. I also found Sarah Brightman's CD "Dive" to be chock full of great songs.

Others that may have been missed
1) Karrin Allyson "It's easy to Remember" Ballads album.
2) Dianne Reeves "The Twelvth of Never" That Day album.
3) Natalie Cole "The Music That Makes me Dance" Ask A Women Who Knows album.
4) Bob Dylan "To Make You Feel My Love" Hope Floats album done by Garth Brooks.
5) Hollies "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother".
6) Yo-Yo Ma "Doce De Coco" Obrigado Brazil album.
7) Renee Fleming "You'll Never Walk Alone" By Request album.
8) Renee Fleming "River Songs" Two Worlds album of Dave Grusin.
9) Sarah Brightman "Time to Say Goodbye" with Andrea Bocelli.
10) Diana Krall "Your looking At Me" All For You album.
11) Alison Krauss "When You Say Nothing AT All" Live album.
12) Jane Monheit "A Case OF You" Come Dream With Me album. Also on Diana Krall Live album. By Joni Mitchell.
13) Mary Chapin Carpenter "The Long Way Home" Time Sex Love album.
14) Holly Cole "I Can See Clearly Now" Don't Smoke In Bed album.
15) Arvo Part "Fur Alina and Spiegel Im Spiegel"
These are my three. John Dean

I'm no DeadHead, but Garcia and Grisman's version of Friend of the Devil can soak most people up- probably the most musical thing Jerry has done.

for achingly-beautiful you might try rachmaninoffs vocalise featuring sylvia mcnair & the baltimore symphony orchestra- almost 7 minutes of total bliss. i actually tried to sit down and answer this question, but picking three is impossible...but here goes (in no particular order)..dvorak symphony 9, bach violin concertos, beethoven symphonies..arrrrrgh what about brahms, mozart, mahler, sibelius,, this is futile.. hayden, tchaikovsky, rimsky-korsakov..aaaarrrrghhh