Spanning the metropolitan area, to bring you the constant variety of residential real estate, Headline Homes is at your service once again.

We’ll let you decide which of the transactions below represent “the thrill of victory” (cue the old-school sports announcer’s voice, with footage of the victorious boxer on the shoulders of his team) and which ones look more like “the agony of defeat” (cut to the hapless downhill skier wiping out at the bottom of the ramp).

Last month featured perhaps the biggest home sale in Nashville history, among other impressive deals. It also saw continuing fallout from the 2008-2009 housing market free fall, even as indicators suggest an ongoing recovery.

The largest single-family home transactions recorded in Davidson and neighboring counties in May 2010, ranked by dollar value:

1. 1301 Moran Road, Franklin 37069
Buyer: Willis J. Johnson and Reba J. Johnson Revocable Trust
Sale price: $28 million
Sellers: Alan and Denise Jackson
Agent for both sides: Rick French and Dana Battaglia (French Christianson Patterson)

If you haven’t heard about this one yet, you have an unusual talent for avoiding the news cycle’s constant torrents. After NashvillePost.com broke news on June 1 that singer Alan Jackson’s Williamson County manse on 135 acres had sold for $28 million, news outlets and blogs from around the world picked up on the story.

And so you probably already know all about the 20-car garage, the gymnasium, the pair of two-bedroom guesthouses, the $38 million original asking price, and so forth.

Willis Johnson is the founder and chairman of publicly traded Copart Inc., a Fairfield, Calif., company that auctions off wrecked cars for insurance companies and other institutions. He resigned as CEO of the company in February. Corporate filings indicate Johnson’s 11.4 percent stake in Copart is worth roughly $340 million.

It was not immediately apparent what would bring the Johnsons to town. They also own a 79-acre vineyard in Suisun Valley, between San Francisco and Sacramento, with a tax-appraised value of about $8.9 million.

Ongoing research has yet to reveal a home sale at any point in Middle Tennessee history that would come anywhere close to this one in price, even after adjusting for the dollar’s purchasing power.

2. 3395 Bailey Road, Franklin 37064
Buyer: Michael A. Wells
Sale price: $4 million
Seller: F. David Bender
Seller’s agents: Susan M. James and Mary Catherine McAnulty (Viva Properties LLC)
Buyer’s agent: Darla Duncan (Redd Realty)

Wells, second-in-command of insurer Jackson National Life Insurance Co., plunked down $4 million on this 68-acre equestrian spread in Leiper’s Fork the day after he announced the Michigan-based company’s plans to locate a 400-employee regional headquarters in Cool Springs.

Bender put the four-bedroom home and lands on the market in October 2008 at $4.9 million. He had paid $2.3 million for the property in 2004. Amenities of the gated estate include a riding ring, stables and two stocked ponds, with more than a mile of paved roads connecting them.

Wells was previously based in Jackson National’s Santa Monica, Calif., office.

3. 826 Windstone Blvd., Brentwood 37027
Buyer: Pinnacle National Bank
Sale price: $2.2 million
Builder/seller: Graymont Group LLC
Agents: None of record

Dubbed “The Lyndhurst Manor” by its builder as it hit the market in August 2008, at $3.69 million, this nearly 10,300-square-foot home would seem to have been a perfect fit for the type of money-is-no-object buyer who suddenly became an endangered species shortly thereafter. Its original listing described it as a “stately and elegant Gothic Revival” structure built around an “impressive circular stair hall.” The master and mistress of this baronial pile could choose between the elevator and the spiral staircase to make their way to the wine cellar and tasting room.

Pinnacle released the developer/seller from a $2.93 million note on the property in exchange for the deed to it. The $2.2 million figure is the bank’s declared estimate of its actual value.

Pinnacle already has a right fancy place to live in downtown Nashville (even though it never meant for the new riverside tower to have a multi-story bathtub where the garage is supposed to be). So we can expect to see the bank let go of this one without too much sentimentality. Look for it in a future Headline Homes column — maybe.

4. 113 Lynnwood Blvd., Nashville 37205
Buyers: Aretha N. McKinney
Sale price: $1.75 million
Seller: W. David Bartholomew
Sellers’ agent: Shannon Barton (Pilkerton Realtors)
Buyers’ agent: Bill Bainbridge (Keller Williams Realty)

Aretha McKinney Blevins is a certified Iyengar yoga instructor who owns 12South Yoga. She is married to Clay Blevins, CEO of Comfort Supply, a wholesaler in the heating and air conditioning industry.

Serial entrepreneur Bartholomew is currently CEO of nurse staffing firm HCCA International.

5. 3979 Betty Ford Road, Murfreesboro 37130
Buyers: Anthony and Brenda McGuire
Sale price: $1.45 million
Sellers: Richie and Lorie McDonald
Agent for both sides: Charlie Harrison (Bob Parks Realty)

This Rutherford County horse farm makes its second Headline Homes appearance. The first came when Richie McDonald, former lead singer for country act Lonestar, and his wife bought the place in February 2008 for $1.31 million.

The home sits on almost 21 acres near Lascassas, north of the ’Boro. Features include a guest house, a pool house with fireplace and wet bar and a five-stall equestrian stable.

6. 4535 Wayland Drive, Nashville 37215
Buyers: William Cordell Witherspoon and Rebecca Lynn Witherspoon
Sale price: $1.325 million
Builder/sellers: Blair S. and Kelli D. Myers
Sellers’ agents: Karen Y. Dobbs (Worth Properties) and Blair Myers (Bryan, Ward & Elmore)
Buyers’ agents: Trudy Byrd and Rita S. Puryear (Fridrich & Clark)

The Tennessee Titans signed veteran linebacker Will Witherspoon to an $11 million free agent contract in March. He and his family have chosen an abode at the edge of Forest Hills, not far from Belle Meade.

7. 6412 Arden Court, Brentwood 37027
Buyers: Warren S. and Elisabeth H. Sandberg
Sale price: $1.282 million
Sellers: Courtnay C. and James K. Wall Jr.
Sellers’ agent: Courtnay Wall (Pilkerton Realtors)
Buyers’ agent: Melanie Baker (Zeitlin & Co.)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center recruited Dr. Warren Sandberg, who holds both an M.D. and a Ph.D., to become its new chair of anesthesiology in April. He was previously at Harvard Medical School. Elisabeth Sandberg joins the V.U. faculty as a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychology.

8. 4025 Dorcas Court, Nashville 37215
Buyers: Thomas H. and Joyce E. Callaway
Sale price: $1.085 million
Seller: Felix R. Dowsley III
Seller’s agent: Steve G. Fridrich (Fridrich & Clark)
Buyers’ agents: Lisa Gaston Luplow and Karen Y. Dobbs (Worth Properties)

This five-year-old house, with just under 5,300 square feet of living space, moved after two months on the market at $110,000 less than its original list price.

9 (tie). 121 Page Road, Nashville 37205
Buyers: Matthew J. and Laura Y. McGirt
Sale price: $1.05 million
Seller: Jason B. Needham
Seller’s agent: Kent McMillin (Fridrich & Clark)
Buyers’ agent: Starling Davis (Fridrich & Clark)

Built in 2004, this Belle Meade Highlands home includes five bedrooms and four and a half baths, coming in right at 5,000 square feet. It sold for just $49,000 under the asking price of $1.099 million. Cost per square foot: $210.

9 (tie). 6215 Gardendale Drive, Nashville 37215
Buyers: Clarence E. and Dawn D. Looney
Sale price: $1.05 million
Seller: Bank of America
Seller’s agent: Cindy Stanton Fey (Crye-Leike)
Buyers’ agent: Jeanie Barrier (Pilkerton Realtors)

The cruel efficiency of the marketplace is on display yet again in this transaction. Listed in August 2008 at $2.4 million after developer Brian Glasser put it through a major renovation, the property spent more than a year on the market as the national economy swooned. Time ran out for the developer, and his lender foreclosed last March.

The Looneys get a 7,900-square-foot home on a quiet Forest Hills cul-de-sac for $132 per square foot.

– Click here for Headline Homes featuers from every month since January 2008