How do you measure, measure a song?

3. Tango: Maureen
The setting is a dater's nightmare: You're alone with your lover's ex-boyfriend. ("This is weird," Mark and Joanne stammer, "fuckin' weird.") And then it gets creepier, as you realize he knows only too well every little thing that bugs you about her, as well as every little sweet thing that keeps you hanging on. ("Has she ever pouted her lips and called you 'Pookie'?")  As the two dump out all their Maureen-related gripes via song and dance, the result is cleansing for Maureen's ex, Mark, but nausea-inducing for new love Joanne, who's just beginning to realize what she's signed up for. And who knew the tango, that sultry Argentinean dance of lovers, could be executed so well between antagonists?

4. I'll Cover You
"Rent" has more than its share of love songs, but the tender duet between Collins and drag queen Angel, both HIV-positive, earns a special place of honor. The two men can't promise each other years, they may not have them, but "sweet kisses I've got to spare." Larson even deftly works the musical's title in, though you might not notice it here after hearing it over and over again in the song "Rent" itself. ("I think they meant it, when they said you can't buy love, now I know you can rent it, a new lease you are, my love.") It's funny to imagine how shocking this song would have been in Broadway's old days — a love song between two men? One who dresses as a woman? Yet the achingly simple song would not be out of place at the world's most traditional heterosexual wedding — lyrics like "when you're worn out and tired," and "you've got one nickel only" are just a new version of those vaunted vows, "for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness or in health."

5. La Vie Boheme
In the old melodramas, there was always a mustache-twirling bossman demanding the rent. In "Rent," that bossman is Mark and Roger's former roomie, now landlord Benny, who's sold out their artistic ideals (and their friendship) for his new wife's money. When he scornfully tells them Bohemia is dead ("Rent" was inspired by Puccini's opera, "La Boheme"), it's as if he tossed a match on gasoline. The artistes of "Rent" start toasting to all the reasons they love their crazy life, leading to such lyrics as "To sodomy, it's between God and me," and "To huevos rancheros and Maya Angelou." Billy Joel thought he covered a lot of ground with "We Didn't Start the Fire"? "La Vie Boheme" wraps in everything from "Carmina Burana" to Pee Wee Herman to "hand-crafted beers made in local breweries." It's enough to make every TV-raised kid in Iowa sell the cow and move immediately to the East Village, and maybe that's the whole point.

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is MSNBC.com's Television Editor.

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