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1Franklin Resources 64,224%

As the old saying goes, the way to make money during a gold rush is to be the one selling shovels. The best stock of the past 25 years – the USA's No. 4 mutual fund manager – is a prime example, managing money and dispensing investment advice during a 20-year bull market.

2Danaher 47,913%

Most people might never have heard of this maker of industrial measuring tools, but companies of all types depend on its gear, which measures just about anything, ranging from electricity to blood and air quality.

3Eaton Vance 38,444%

This smaller rival to Franklin Resources also cashed in on the insatiable demand for money management as it offered everything from mutual funds to services for institutional investors.

4UnitedHealth 37,672%

Skyrocketing medical costs often are the worst part of going to the doctor. This insurer has prospered as employers and consumers looking for protection from wallet-busting costs snapped up its plans.

By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

5Cisco Systems 33,632%

This router maker made a fortune selling fatter straws to Internet surfers sucking ever-bigger amounts of bytes by downloading music and updating their Web pages.

6International Gaming Technology 33,436%

Investors who bet the house on this slot machine ace hit jackpot. It makes one-armed bandits such as "Megabucks" and "Wheel of Fortune" and cashed in on casino and online gambling craze.

7Biomet 30,531%

Biomet's reconstructive medical devices have made breaking a knee, leg or shoulder a bit less scary. Its success also made Biomet part of another huge trend: Private-equity investors are buying it.

AP photo

8Microsoft 29,266%

More than 90% of computers run some sort of software from the house Bill Gates built. Pen and paper are foreign objects to cubicle dwellers nowadays thanks to its ubiquitous Windows operating system and Office software tools.

9Best Buy28,703%

This retailer turned itself into a Disneyland for gadget freaks with its shelves brimming with the latest electronic gizmos. Anyone itching for a bigger TV or faster computer knows right where to go.

By Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

10Oracle28,535%

Companies not willing to lose their institutional memory count on Oracle databases to store their most vital information. The company Larry Ellison heads offers software to manage all corporate data.

11Stryker 25,383%

Weekend warriors don't have to hang up their cleats, skis or racquets due to wobbly knees or worn-out hips. Stryker's artificial joints help keep 77 million Baby Boomers in the game.

12Countrywide 24,160%

This leading mortgage lender provided the fuel for the home-buying boom, which in turn was a boon for its bottom line. Its focus on first-time buyers with pristine credit has limited collateral damage from exposure to sub-prime lending.

13Expeditors International23,860%

If it seems most everything sold here was made in China, this freight-forwarding company is probably partly responsible. It helps exporters save money by selling empty space in transport vessels.

By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

14Home Depot 23,845%

Handy types willing to strap on a tool belt and silence that leaky faucet, feel at home at this arms dealer in the do-it-yourself craze. It puts cut-rate prices on everything from screws to toilets.

15Dell 23,048%

A revolutionary made-to-order PC business model that was the brainchild of founder Michael Dell wowed Wall Street. Ads like "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell" helped transform it into a USA icon.

16Robert Half 21,170%

This is a case of putting the right people in the right place at the right time. The provider of temporary and permanent help's deep bench of accounting and financial pros ready for hire helped it prosper in the post-Enron world.

17Credo Petroleum 20,180%

This pint-sized natural gas driller produced huge returns because its patented technology "liberates gas stranded in reservoirs."

18Adobe Systems 19,989%

Anyone who has opened a PDF file knows what this digital-imaging king makes. Its flagship Photoshop software lets consumers and pros doctor photos while its Flash Web software turns Web pages into animated spectacles.

19Precision Castparts 19,437%

Another stellar stock many have probably never heard of. It makes investment castings and airfoil castings and other components used in jet engines.

By Seth Wenig, AP

20Berkshire Hathaway 19,424%

Warren Buffett, the "Oracle of Omaha," made himself and shareholders rich investing in easy-to-understand, undervalued businesses. Paint, underwear and insurance may not be sexy, but they're profitable.

21Smithfield Foods 19,414%

Pork production and processing added up to super-sized gain for Smithfield and put its shareholders in hog heaven. Its pre-processed sandwich meats fill kids' lunchboxes daily, and the low-carb craze make Smithfield bacon a breakfast staple.

22Paxar 18,923%

If you've ever bought a pair of jeans, capri pants or trendy piece of apparel, you know Paxar. They make info-packed labels, tags and pressure-sensitive stickers that list fabric, size, price and advise on after-purchase care.

23Time Warner 18,158%

This media and entertainment mega-giant is home to brand-name magazines such as Time, People, Money and Sports Illustrated; cable behemoths CNN and HBO; movie studios Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema; and AOL.

24Paychex 17,920%

On payday, Paychex does everything for small business except writing the checks. It calculates timesheets, processes payroll, prints pay stubs, deducts taxes and sets up direct deposits.

By Tony Dejak, AP

25Harley Davidson 17,808%

Legions of loyal followers are devoted to the USA motorcycle maker whose chrome-accented cruisers are affectionately dubbed "Hogs." Buying a "Roadster" or "Softail" is part sport, part $8,000-to-$21,000 personal statement.

Source: Ned Davis Research. Performance is through 4/5/2007 from 9/15/1982. Performance for stocks that went public after 9/15/1982 is from each company's split-adjusted initial public offering price.

1Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

By J.K. Rowling (1998)

Midnight book parties, all-night readathons, overnight deliveries: A boy wizard named Harry got kids (and adults) thinking that reading was cool. And mega sales of the magical series redefined what it meant to be a best seller.

2The Deep End of the Ocean

By Jacquelyn Mitchard (1996)

What was America reading? Whatever Oprah Winfrey was reading. The talk-show host became a publishing powerhouse on Sept. 17, 1996, when she made Mitchard뭩 novel her first book club pick. All 57 selections have been instant smash hits.

3The Da Vinci Code

By Dan Brown (2003)

The religious thriller about Jesus’s love affair with Mary Magdalene became the fastest-selling adult novel in the history of publishing with 75 million copies in print worldwide. It drew a warning from the Vatican and spawned months of water-cooler debates, a movie, countless Code wannabes and an entire travel industry.

4The 911 Commission Report

By the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (2004)

Praised for its riveting depiction of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, this is the only government report ever nominated for the National Book Award. First-day sales pushed the $10 report to the No. 1 spot on USA TODAY’s Best Selling Books list.

5Chicken Soup for the Soul

By Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield (1993)

Comfort food for readers, the Chicken Soup books, which told short, bright stories about overcoming adversity, quickly became a franchise. The 144 titles now in the series are geared to teens, single parents, even NASCAR fans.

6Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

By John Gray (1992)

We always knew men and women were from different planets. Gray explained why (women like to talk, men don't), and the Mars/Venus image seeped into the lexicon.

7Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution

By Robert C. Atkins (1992)

Dr. Atkins ignited the low-carb craze, the reigning diet of the '90s. Bread and pasta were out, and high protein was in.

8And the Band Played On

By Randy Shilts (1987)

Shilts, a reporter at The San Francisco Chronicle who would die of AIDS in 1994, helped wake up the USA to the emerging AIDS epidemic. His book was the first definitive analysis of the medical, cultural and political! dimensions and was written with the power and sweep of a novel.

9Beloved

By Toni Morrison (1987)

Morrison’s masterpiece about an escaped slave who kills her baby to save the child from slavery won the Pulitzer and propelled her to the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is the last American to win it. In a 2006 poll of writers byThe New York Times Book Review, Beloved was named the best American novel of the past 25 years.

10The Greatest Generation

By Tom Brokaw (1998)

The former NBC anchor popularized the expression “greatest generation” when he paid tribute to boomers’ parents with stories about men and women who survived the Great Depression and fought in World War II.

11Bridget Jones's Diary

By Helen Fielding (1998)

Singletons, smug marrieds, v.v.. funny diary observations: This British import set the stage for a flood of chick-lit novels, from The Nanny Diaries to The Devil Wears Prada.

12Left Behind

By Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins (1995)

The first in the fictional apocalyptic series about the Rapture clicked with evangelicals and then found a wider audience. Fifteen books about the end of the world followed with titles such as Armageddon and Glorious Appearing. The series wrapped up with a bang on April 3 with Kingdom Come.

13The Purpose Driven Life

By Rick Warren (2003)

Everyone has a purpose in God’s plan, according to this Christian devotional guide. Sales surged in 2005 when an Atlanta woman used the book’s teachings to persuade a murder suspect who took her hostage to turn himself in.

14Fast Food Nation

By Eric Schlosser (2001)

This exposé of fast-food restaurants and meatpacking plants earned comparisons to Upton Sinclair’s 1906 classic The Jungle. The book helped transform the American diet as we were reminded we are what we eat.

15The Satanic Verses

By Salman Rushdie (1989)

Riots and political uproar on three continents greeted the publication of the Indian-born writer’s novel of good and evil. Fundamentalist Muslims called it blasphemous, and the Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (death sentence) on Rushdie.

16The Closing of the American Mind

By Allan Bloom (1987)

The conservative scholar’s attack on the shortcomings of colleges and liberal professors provoked an intense debate as well as self-criticism on campuses across the USA.

17The Bonfire of the Vanities

By Tom Wolfe (1987)

Wolfe’s first novel captured the Wall Street greed of the ’80s better than any non-fiction. It vividly illustrated the growing gap between the haves and have-nots in American cities.

18The Joy Luck Club

By Amy Tan (1989)

In 1949 San Francisco, four Chinese women gathered to play mahjong and forget the pain of the past. Tan, daughter of Chinese immigrants, created a debut novel out of this fresh material and launched a wave of immigrant literature.

19What To Expect When You're Expecting

By Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg and Sandee Hathaway (1984)

Boomer parents ditched Dr. Spock in favor of this accessible baby guide. The eight books in the series span toddlers to baby-sitters

20A Brief History of Time

By Stephen Hawking (1988)

Theoretical physics suddenly was sexy thanks to a wheelchair-bound Cambridge University professor (he has Lou Gehrig’sdisease). Hawking explained black holes and the Big Bang theory for the rest of us.

21Iacocca

By Lee Iacocca (1984)

The Chrysler chairman’s autobiography rolled off the assembly line and found eager buyers, proving a business memoir could be a hit.

22Waiting to Exhale

By Terry McMillan (1992)

With her profane, sassy voice, Terry McMillan’s groundbreaking novel about black women looking for satisfying relationships was a wake-up call for the publishing industry. Readers of all races were hungry for entertaining stories about African-Americans.

23Cold Mountain

By Charles Frazier (1997)

The Civil War saga got millions of readers talking about a literary novel. It was a rarity: a debut novel by an unknown writer that was both a critical and commercial hit.

24Backlash

By Susan Faludi (1991)

Faludi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, took on the media, Hollywood and anti-feminist propaganda as she examined the backlash that developed in the 1980s against successful women.

25Final Exit

By Derek Humphry (1991)

The topic of assisted suicide exploded in controversy in the ’90s, thanks to Michigan pathologist Jack Kevorkian and his suicide machine and this how-to manual by an English journalist who helped his cancer-stricken first wife kill herself.