Now that Glee is gone for good, we have some ideas about what songs the show slipped up on by not covering.

Over the course of six seasons, it may have felt like Glee covered every song ever written, but they actually only (only!) managed a handful over 700 musical numbers. A good effort, all told, but we wish they’d made room for a few more.

Season 6 certainly featured some classics that the showrunners clearly wanted to jam in there before the big finish — “Time After Time,” “Mickey,” and “Take On Me” to name a few. But there are still thousands of songs that would have made great additions to the show at some point. Some of Glee’s song choices were perfect, some were questionable, some were confusing. Some launched the careers of lesser known bands and some brought classic artists back into the spotlight of a new generation. Fans will remember various controversies over the years surrounding Glee not getting the legal rights to perform some songs they wanted — Disney, to start with — and of the millions of other tunes out there, well, there simply wasn’t time for everything.

However, they should have made time for these. We take a look at twenty musical numbers that Glee really should have covered at some point.

‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’

Original artist: Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Who should have sung it: Finn and Rachel
Why it would have worked: Its’s one of the most beloved male/female duets of all time, and it encapsulates the love, playfulness and passion of Finchel at their best. It would have been “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” all over again. If Finn and Rachel had ever performed this one with that special look in their eye, it would be a fan favorite for sure.

‘Royals’

Original artist: Lorde
Who should have sung it: The Unholy Trinity – Quinn, Santana and Brittany
Why it would have worked: This was one of those massive “song of the summer” tunes that Glee often seems to jump on, so it would have fit right in during season 5. Although they weren’t around much that season, we can imagine the Unholy Trinity tackling this song with some nice raspy low tones and harmonies. It also would have worked well for the three season 6 girls — Kitty, Jane and Madison.

‘I Touch Myself’

Original artist: The Divinyls
Who should have sung it: New Directions
Why it would have worked: To quote one of our readers verbatim: “Season 3 should have had an inappropriate assembly number, and it should have been this.” Where is the lie? There would have been so much second-hand embarrassment, but sometimes that’s what Glee is all about — remember “Push It?” A pep-rally performance of this including Blaine Anderson and Sugar Motta? Please, send help. And nobody tell Jacob Ben-Israel.

‘Mr Blue Sky’

Original artist: Electric Light Orchestra
Who should have sung it: The Warblers
Why it would have worked:This song is the epitome of Warblerdom — pop positivity with a vintage twist, and just the ability to put a smile on our faces. Obviously, it’s perfect for an a cappella group — if you don’t fancy the version featured above, you can try out one of these many different arrangements here, here, here or here. One of them even includes percussive foot-stamping — a very Sebastian-era Warblers trend!

‘Kiss You’

Original artist: One Direction
Who should have sung it: Vocal Adrenaline
Why it would have worked: Over the years, Glee gave us a fun version of “What Makes You Beautiful,” an okay version of “Live While We’re Young,” and a horrid version of “Story of my Life,” but “Kiss You” blows all of those out of the water as a dynamic and fist-pumping pop single. The best deserves the best, so we’d make this a Vocal Adrenaline competition number, with a strong guest vocalist and some high energy dance moves.

‘Under Pressure’

Original artist: Queen featuring David Bowie
Who should have sung it: One of the male BFF pairings: Blaine and Sam, Jake and Ryder, or Spencer and Roderick
Why it would have worked: This explosive duets is, quite frankly, one of the best songs of all time, and it’s so strongly themed that it could have played a crucial part in some sort of plot-based drama, but it could have worked equally well as a part of a massive competition set. We’d really like to have seen it sung between one of the pairs of male friends, obviously, channeling their inner David and Freddie and hyping up the crowd.

‘Karma Chameleon’

Original artist: Culture Club
Who should have sung it: New Directions 3.0
Why it would have worked: Karma Chameleon is both instantly recognizable and a super fun song to sing, full of gorgeous vocal dips and melismata (look it up, nerds). Mason’s voice in particular would be a joy on this song — a competition winner for sure, and there’s also the opportunity to get pretty crazy with the costumes and styling if it was more of a music video style performance.

‘People Will Say We’re In Love’

Original artist: Broadway’s Oklahoma!
Who should have sung it: Rachel and Jesse
Why it would have worked: Rachel once told Jesse that her three dream roles were Fanny Brice, Evita and Laurey from Oklahoma!. Jesse would make a perfect Curly, so we want to see the pair of them, all married and stuff, star in Oklahoma! on Broadway together, leading to Rachel’s Tony win. Infinitely preferable to the somewhat questionable concept of Jane Austen Sings, don’t you think?

‘Hallelujah’

Original artist: Leonard Cohen
Who should have sung it: The entire cast
Why it would have worked: Hallelujah, which has been covered and re-arranged by many artists, including John Cale, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and Alexandra Burke, is a strange and haunting song often associated with — though not actually about — grief. It would have fit beautifully into many of the show’s graver moments, featuring a lead vocalist — Mercedes maybe — with a choral background from the whole glee club.

‘God Only Knows’

Original artist: The Beach Boys
Who should have sung it: The entire cast
Why it would have worked: It’s surprising that Glee never used this song — even the opening chords invoke a feeling of love, melancholy and togetherness. It should have been a big end-of-episode number, cutting between different characters in different places all contributing to the performance. Ideally, it should have been the closer for “Glee, Actually” — if you’re going to call your episode that, it’s really the least you can do.

On the next page: Which solos should your faves have sung?

‘Ignition (Remix)’

Original artist: R. Kelly
Who should have sung it: Artie
Why it would have worked: Take one infectious R & B song and add one wannabe ghetto white boy in a wheelchair and what do you get? Ridiculous perfection. Artie’s voice has just enough soul in it that he can pull these numbers off — think his Usher “Confessions” solo — and his glasses-clad, nerdy, girl-crazy persona makes his take on slightly sleazy songs like this one hilarious as well as genuinely pleasing to the ear.

‘I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)’

Original artist: Disney’s Hercules
Who should have sung it: Santana
Why it would have worked: Glee has featured exactly two Disney songs ever — “Bella Notte” and “Let It Go,” but, battles over song rights aside, we always wanted more. If Santana’s coming out story hadn’t been so tearful, and so intrinsically linked to her love for Brittany, this would have been a gorgeous number for our “straight-up bitch” falling for someone new, backed by the other New Directions girls as the Muses.

‘I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues’

Original artist: Elton John
Who should have sung it: Blaine
Why it would have worked: This would have been a perfect solo piano performance for Blaine: a big, raw, emotional number that we got to see the live take of on screen. Think the “Teenage Dream” reprise and “Against All Odds.” Like those songs, this one would have fit thematically somewhere in season 4 — maybe when Kurt and Blaine are struggling with a long distance relationship.

‘Son of a Preacher Man’

Original artist: Dusty Springfield
Who should have sung it: Unique
Why it would have worked: Come on. Have you ever HEARD this song? We don’t even need an excuse other than the idea of Unique doing this in any context is a gift that Glee deprived us of. Seriously, any context — a competition solo, a weekly assignment, hell, we’d even take a literal ‘Unique falls for the son of the local minister and needs to sing her feelings’ scenario. Just give the girl this song.

‘Brown Eyed Girl’

Original artist: Van Morrison
Who should have sung it: Puck
Why it would have worked: For a show that paid tribute to nearly every iconic musician in history, it’s shocking that Van Morrison never made it in. No “Moondance,” no “Gloria,” no “Have I Told You Lately.” These are some of the biggest songs of all time, but maybe none more so than the classic radio staple “Brown Eyed Girl.” Puck’s talent for blending rock and swing and giving it some extra charm make him the man for the job here.

‘Sing’

Original artist: The Dresden Dolls
Who should have sung it: Tina
Why it would have worked: Occasionally, the show covered artists that Glee’s audience may consider obscure, like Black Kids, Hey Monday, The Waitresses and Lykke Li. The Dresden Dolls, with their goth cabaret aesthetic, make perfect sense as a personal choice of Tina’s, and this anthem about the power of song could have easily been swapped out with the My Chemical Romance number of the same name in “Comeback.”

‘Stand By Me’

Original artist: Ben E. King
Who should have sung it: Finn
Why it would have worked: Another iconic classic rock song that it’s hard to believe that Glee never used. This one could have only ever been for Finn. His voice might have lacked the richness of the original, but he would have put heart into it, and we would have loved him for it. We’re thinking original New Directions era, a weekly assignment choir room performance with some sort of sweet but heavy-handed lesson to be learnt.

‘I Knew You Were Trouble’

Original artist: Taylor Swift
Who should have sung it: Marley
Why it would have worked: Glee has done a couple of Taylor Swift songs, but nothing off of either Red or 1989, the albums that took her from country sensation to the world’s biggest pop star. It would have been fun to see “Shake It Off” make it into season 6, but the Glee character that most suits Tay vocally is probably Marley. This hit would have been a great fit for the ongoing mess that was her relationship with bad-boy Jake.

‘I Am What I Am’

Original artist: Broadway’s La Cage Aux Folles
Who should have sung it: Kurt
Why it would have worked: Although the number’s original context is about a drag queen, this song has become a defiant anthem for queerness, individuality and pride (lower and uppercase P) in general. “I Am What I Am” could have easily replaced “Rose’s Turn” in season 1 and delivered the same message, or it could have been used at countless other moments in Kurt’s life, either as a formal performance or a moment of self-expression.

‘My Way’

Original artist: Frank Sinatra
Who should have sung it: Rachel
Why it would have worked: “My Way” is the ultimate retrospective number, about living life to the fullest. This unreleased Celine Dion version is exactly the right key and delivery for Rachel, and maybe if the Glee finale had done a Parks and Rec and showed us these characters a long way in the future, we would have seen a Rachel in the autumn of her years, belting this out one last time.

— Related: A fond farewell to the Glee fandom
— Related: Where to see the Glee cast next