by EJ Young

Created on: May 22, 2009   Last Updated: August 20, 2010

American Idol's contagious fever keeps spreading with no antidote in sight. The glitz, the guest mentors, the band, the stage, the stars, the groupies,all that is 'Idol,' just gets more golden.

That includes talent. Not to take away from the amazing raw voice of the very first idol, Kellie Clarkson or the phenomenal deserved success of Season 4 winner, Carrie Underwood, but Season 8 easily captures the best-ever performance on American Idol.

As he confidently takes the stage, making at least a two octave range seem effortless, the diverse and unique performance style of runner-up Adam Lambert proves he's in a league of his own. Narrowing down the 27-year-old artist's superlative renditions, is the hard part. Two of Lambert's songs could represent the very best all time American Idol performances.

The two choices show his diverse performance styles. Give the ultra champion performance to Lambert's version of the Tears for Fears song, Mad World. Change is Gonna Come slides in as the next best, best performance of all time on American Idol.

The 2009 American Idol runner-up deserves the best performance stamp for Mad World. Incidentally, he performed the song twice. Both were creatively delicious, but the Birth Year Week performance grabs the ubermost rating. The singer's hauntingly subtle emotion in the reach-out-and-grab-your-heart interpretation of Mad World tops any performance ever attempted on the Idol stage.

As the solemn beat begins, the shadows and the darkness set the tone as Lambert sits sadly in the soft spotlight center stage. Dressed in white he delivers an almost innocent dejected message, All around me are familiar faces. Worn out places, worn out faces . . . Goin' nowhere, Goin' nowhere.

The eloquent vocal quality stays understated for the first verse, but the captive audience then witnesses some anger and frustration when Lambert stands and builds frustration as delivers the words, Went to school and I was very nervous, No one knew me, no one knew me Hello teacher tell me what's my lesson? Look right through me, look right through me.

At this point in his performance, he has become that 'every man' character experiencing society's raw harsh reality. By the time he shares his secret, And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad, The dreams in which I'm dyin', Are the best I've ever had . . . he soothes the audience into feeling like they're in an intimate setting.

When he pulls the tone back into an eerie higher pitched echo-like

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