Favorite productions for Comparing Mixes

This thread might belong somewhere else but I am very interested to know what three songs you would recommended as the best mixed, best sounding, and best sonic production (not in those categories necessarily but over all).  

This is a hard question but it would be helpful to know what we all consider great production.  I would love to know what the consensus would be for songs that we could use to compare our own mixes to.  I realize that there are so many genres to pick from but I thought I would ask anyway. 
I am working on my list now.  

Thanks. 

Rimshot

For me it depends on the genre and instrumentation. I agree Steely Dan has awesome production - same with Dark Side of the Moon, etc. But if you're working on an acoustic/vocal track for example, those might not be a great reference for mixing.  If I'm mixing a blues song, I might compare against Clapton's From the Cradle or B.B. King's One Kind Favor.

After getting a few decent mixes under my belt, I do like to do A/B comparisons with some of the better mixes of my own.

Many good references on this forum, too. Frank Tanton (notnat) and Slow Marching Band a couple of fine examples...

Good choices Rim. 

That should cover just about any genre. And it sets your "standard" which is great IMO.

I never thought of doing anything like that Tim... Great Idea...

I'll try that with "Gaslighting Abbie", the first track on Steely Dan's album Two Against Nature.
 

Another vote for the Steely Dan stuff, but only to hear pure fidelity (unless that is the style you are doing). When I want to "hear" my studio I will put on the latest two Steely Dan CD's and even the Donald Fagen "Morph the Cat" which I have in DVD Audio (48K 24 Bit).
 
As "Lynn" said earlier, Cousin Dupree is a mixing lesson in itself (Found on Two Against Nature).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktamL5ko04U  (even with You Tube limitation, the mix shines)

Those are great recordings to hear what your room and setup sounds like - but I'm not sure I would mix to those as reference - as I agree with "timidi" they are dated. It's the same Steely Dan sound from 1972, just perfected with today's recording equipment.

I would tend to reference a current CD in the style/genre of the song I am recording that also matches the energy & feel (ie: don't reference a ballad if you are recording an uptempo tune). If I'm recording a country tune - I would put on a current hit from Blake Shelton, Keith Urban or Brad Paisley. If I were recording a POP tune I might listen to Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, etc... (again - depends on the style of the song. POP is an extremely diverse area).

One last CD I will add in the listening mix is Bruce Hornsby's "Hot House", mostly for its diversity but also because it is recorded very well.

Opinions on what is a good mix are as diverse as opinions on songs. So your choices are great!

I'd rather someone tell me my mix sounded like something from the 70s than saying it sounds like the new Maroon 5 album or whatever, but others would disagree!!

For a more current example of styles to mix to I often reference Radiohead. I especially like to listen to "Idioteque" from the Kid A CD. They use a lot of fresh sounds, and lots of percussion in their productions. Evanescence is another modern band that I listen to for hard rock influences.