What songs are almost universally recognisable within the first couple of seconds, at most?
youtube.com/watch?v=a3ir9HC9vYg&
youtube.com/watch?v=BOuu88OwdK8&
The Stones, Gimme shelter and Sympathy for the Devil, Born under punches by Talking Heads, Shes so Modern by Boomtown Rats, The Boy with the Arab strap and Sleep the clock around by Belle and Sebastian are the first that spring to mind, all instantly uniquely themselves.
Jump Around, House of Pain. Instant head twitch for me.
Heard it through the Grapevine. My favourite intro of all time.
Jimmy Hendrix, Voodoo Child.
My favourite - Tin Soldier, Small Faces
Smook on t'watter
youtube.com/watch?v=ikGyZh0VbPQ&
edit: I don't believe it - it has just come up on the radio!
If you want Beatles, I'd go with Hard Day's Night - one chord.
Am in a shared office today, so no playing around on YouTube just now but has Teenage Kicks by The Undertones been mentioned?
And for the upper classes and art students
youtube.com/watch?v=GRxofEmo3HA&
Edit
youtube.com/watch?v=hOA-2hl1Vbc&
youtube.com/watch?v=EEzyrpfrPEI&
So Many...
This lot are already represented but this is the one that gets me from the first bar.
youtube.com/watch?v=EkPy18xW1j8&
Other contenders could be:
youtube.com/watch?v=6GxWmSVv-cY&
(That flag's a little un-PC but it was 1970 something.)
or this,
youtube.com/watch?v=FGVGFfj7POA&
And probably only if you have an encyclopedic knowledge of the many similar-sounding (but all different) intros written by this man,
youtube.com/watch?v=ZFo8-JqzSCM&
The reason I own too many guitars.
Bit more classical
youtube.com/watch?v=-bzWSJG93P8&
And Gaga fans
youtube.com/watch?v=azdwsXLmrHE&
youtube.com/watch?v=FxIo57WURRE&
This could give shivers of joy, of shivers of fear.
Probably already covered in the youtube links above but my votes go to Bridge Over Troubled Water (one chord) and Wuthering Heights (three notes) - both still surely in the top ten hits of all time.
Martin
Ian Dury - Plaistow Patricia
It might be a little bit sweary...
Waterloo sunset
OMD, Enola Gay
New Order, Blue Monday
The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl, A Fairytale Of New York
Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey, Together in Electric Dreams
Simple Minds, (Don’t You) Forget About Me
Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cutter
Madonna, Like a Prayer (is that a cheat because it is a vocal?)
T’Pau, Heart and Soul
Massive Attack, Angel
Massive Attack, Blue Lines
Massive Attack, Teardrop
Lou Reed, Perfect Day
Girls Aloud, Sound of the Underground
Nelly Furtado, Like a Bird
Thin Lizzy, The Boys Are Back in Town
Derek and the Dominoes, Layla
Here is one that I love from Lucinda Williams.
Ok - Pub Quiz question. Who played drums on this track?
Correct!
Shirley:
youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4&
.. and this (although only now do I realise it has a strange few bars that never get played before the catchy bit):
youtube.com/watch?v=nu6Os0R-tq4&
... and obviously anything from Abba (as Welsh Kate noticed) but this of course which is recognisable from the first 0.5 second:
youtube.com/watch?v=xFrGuyw1V8s&
Alan
youtube.com/watch?v=0TZ_9-rbslo&
youtube.com/watch?v=yCW7Aw8ugOI&
And the best intro ever:
Sweet child o mine - guns n roses
Acres wild - Jethro tull
Plug in baby - muse
A song written by Britain's most famous bass player but with the first verse sung by Britain's best bass player in this version (it has a pretty recognisable intro):
‘The sun always shines on TV’ intro is longer on its own than many whole songs are... in terms of immediate recognition, if you’re picking something by a-ha then surely it would be ‘Take on me’...?
other instantly recognisable intros:
Ziggy stardust
atomic by blondie
true faith by new order
debaser by the pixies
> A song written by Britain's most famous bass player but with the first verse sung by Britain's best bass player in this version (it has a pretty recognisable intro):
I think Britains most famous bass player is more likely to be Lemmy
The introduction to Beethoven's fifth pretty much stands alone for universal recognition. Not such good lyrics as some mentioned though.
T.
Guitar intros have to nail it for instant recognition, no?
youtube.com/watch?v=ZCOSPtyZAPA&
But then drums do a good job too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljIQo1OHkTI&list=RDZNzuW5LzI6c&inde...
And Mr Bowie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4d7Wp9kKjA&list=RDEMSCOvaN85sneWueWKn6...
And for the Classical crew
This is still my favourite song, ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2KRpRMSu4g&list=RDEMzmkD27MDUHZDVEI3ty...
> ‘The sun always shines on TV’ intro is longer on its own than many whole songs are... in terms of immediate recognition, if you’re picking something by a-ha then surely it would be ‘Take on me’...?
my thoughts exactly, but The Lemming never answers my posts in words so I didn’t bother asking
good call on Atomic. Most Blondie singles fit the bill actually. I’ll throw in Talking Heads’ Road to Nowhere, Psycho Killer and Once in a Lifetime too.
Probably my favourite song of all time, but the way the intro just builds up is incredible - stops me in my tracks every time
youtube.com/watch?v=zuuObGsB0No&
Alternatively, how about a prize for how many different elements you can fit into an intro
youtube.com/watch?v=fxvkI9MTQw4&
House of the Rising Sun got me thinking of this
youtube.com/watch?v=0cdz8mXyWbk&
and
youtube.com/watch?v=3gCWOb7V-b0& (love this vid!)
and
> Jimmy Hendrix, Voodoo Child.
The first one that sprung to mind for me too.
Has anyone said Ace of Spades or Born to be wild yet?
"Seven nation army" by the white stripes.
youtube.com/watch?v=RuWmsg-ihLg&
youtube.com/watch?v=Ue5jyj_nosc&
youtube.com/watch?v=FKAHU5-pS_A&
Or almost any Crass song, but I maybe a bit prejudiced as I listened almost constantly from 1977 for at least 10 years.
> Jump Around, House of Pain. Instant head twitch for me.
You get ready to jump in the air and realise it's Harlem Shuffle by Bob & Earl.
W
Which remindes me
youtube.com/watch?v=GBOzC_W_5EI&
Best inhaler intro of any record!!
This one's fairly unmistakable.
youtube.com/watch?v=eAihlscrUfg&
And, just possibly, my favourite ever song...
Hilarious. I especially liked the end where if mentioned vhs options. Did they not like betamax
?
Metallica - Master of Puppets. The very first chord should give it away.
Jessica - The Allman Brothers
The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
Thunderstruck - AC/DC
are all tunes I have identified by a one second excerpt in our Friday lunchtime games of Name That Tune.
Radiohead’s No Surprises
various efforts from Smashing Pumpkins (Today, Disarm)
Therapy’s Screamager
The Breeders’ Cannonball
> Hilarious. I especially liked the end where if mentioned vhs options. Did they not like betamax
> ?
I'm surprised DVDs got a mention, sounds a bit posh for up north
It's on, Flowered Up
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGPTVRGqfe
Shine On, House of Love
youtube.com/watch?v=tg4nEY8-kSM&
Leave them all behind, Ride
And tons more
this one does it for me, probably not many others mind you..
youtube.com/watch?v=GZGlXzvdYvU&
I didn't see it above, but surely one of the most instantly recognisable (i.e. within milliseconds) is Pink Floyd's Time.
Most songs that start with the main guitar riff, if there is one and it's any good?
Faces - Pool Hall Richard - which I love, being the first single I ever bought, in 1973.
Several of the better know Stones tracks:
or maybe I've just listened to them all so many times that I know what they are before they even start.
From the Who, I'd choose Substitute, especially as played solo on acoustic guitar by Richard Thompson at Seattle.
My Beatles choice would be Paperback Writer.
Here's three crackers.
youtube.com/watch?v=R6GDdKrQ8EI&
I got that from the 1st guitar chang
> I didn't see it above, but surely one of the most instantly recognisable (i.e. within milliseconds) is Pink Floyd's Time.
Their “Money” would be recognisable within FRACTIONS of a millisecond. FRACTIONS
> Their “Money” would be recognisable within FRACTIONS of a millisecond. FRACTIONS
I was thinking more of "Shine On You Diamond" as the ultimate example of a Pink Floyd song instantaneously recognised by it's intro.
Yes yes
and that crap one that takes up all of side 4 of Ummagumma. Mammal. Caves. Grooving. Picts
Has anyone had this yet?
youtube.com/watch?v=0WUdlaLWSVM&
or a variation on the theme
youtube.com/watch?v=zt51rITH3EA&
On which point, when did you last see a cash register that went 'Ker-ching'?
T.
If we are doing Rory, then for this thread I don't think you can beat Shin Kicker on Stage Struck
youtube.com/watch?v=WpkvNekADJE&
It would help if people named the links in their posts.
youtube.com/watch?v=PWoDSGfSu6o&
Natural Mystic by Bob Marley has an unmistakable 'fade in' intro.
> It would help if people named the links in their posts.
Indeed it would. I'm not looking at a link if I don't know what it is first.
T.
Yes. If they’re that recognisable I shouldn’t need to have to click on a link to remind myself what they sound like...
two suggestions from guns’n’roses-
welcome to the jungle- has there ever been a better opening track to an album?
and
sweet child o’mine- has there ever been a better guitar riff...?
(actually, yes to the second question- ziggy stardust- but this runs it close...)
youtube.com/watch?v=SdbLqOXmJ04&
And
youtube.com/watch?v=9ZrAYxWPN6c&
EDIT:
and for ravers of a certain vintage...
youtube.com/watch?v=Ub4AzeZAiQA&
> It would help if people named the links in their posts.
I guess you really like my approach here and on the movie threads then.
Motorhead by Motorhead, just after the first split second of that growling bass guitar you know what song it's going to be.
youtube.com/watch?v=0AUVGrUTE-Q&
The way the layers build up, with the drums and then the guitar, and Lemmy's growly voice joining last is like an intro into the Motorhead sound, too, the different elements of the 'wall of noise'.
> and for ravers of a certain vintage...
And for those of us of a different vintage, the greatest vocal house anthem of all. What an intro.
youtube.com/watch?v=tl17slRd89k&
And this blew my 14 year old mind. A song from far in the future, instantly recognisable.
youtube.com/watch?v=DTZEf_Fn4gQ&
> It would help if people named the links in their posts. >
I don't agree. What I'd like is a link to the music that doesn't show the name of the artist or the tune. Then we'd only have the music and that would show how recognisable it is or not.
That dislike wasn't from me by the way. I just have a fear of clicking onto links which contain music I don't like I think.
> I don't agree. What I'd like is a link to the music that doesn't show the name of the artist or the tune. Then we'd only have the music and that would show how recognisable it is or not.
It makes it harder to work out if one's own suggestion has been added already though...
> That dislike wasn't from me by the way.
I couldn’t care less about who clicked “dislike” on any of my posts and I certainly don’t sit wondering if it might have been you
But have a smiley
> Then we'd only have the music and that would show how recognisable it is or not.
Pub pop quiz is the place for you then!
I do get what you are saying despite it being the opposite of what I posted about earlier. Both approaches and attitudes are equally valid in a forum such as this.
I guess I have a possibly irrational aversion to URLs into the unknown