Billy Joel’s debut album Cold Spring Harbor led off with She’s Got a Way.
The Outlaws - There Goes Another Love Song
Georgia Satellites - Keep Your Hands to Yourself
Ram Jam - Black Betty
Jackie - Sinéad O’Connor
This is not the track you choose to open your album if you want to maximize sales, but Sinéad didn’t really give a shit. A great introduction to her vocal range and uniqueness.
Thank you so much, @Maserschmidt for the link! I learned a lot of revealing and surprising things about one of my favorite albums (it’s in my personal top five). As you might remember, I just saw Richard Thompson a few weeks ago for the first time in a small club, and on this podcast he was just as eloquent and entertaining as on stage. And Linda has some wonderfully sarcastic howlers. I bookmarked the podcast, I sure will listen to more.
Since we’ve kind of gotten off on an RT tangent here… Andrew Hickey recently did an episode (part 1) on Fairport Convention in his “500 Songs” podcast, and a few people in the comments posted the following link to a recent interview with Richard Thompson:
Anyway, back to the opening tracks!
The Black Angels - Passover starts with Young Men Dead
Just the title makes me shiver.
First track off Mahavishnu Orchestra’s debut album The Inner Mounting Flame is “Meeting of the Spirits”:
Checking my personal top 40, the winner is:
Funkytown by Lipps Inc.
Second place is More than a Feeling
Cowboy Junkies. Album - The Trinity Session. “Mining for Gold” song. Great freaking song, and an album in my top 3. Do not ignore this album. It is country-ish, but does a cover of Lou Reeds Sweet Jane that must be seen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa9nN3G2CSg
Oh, wait. KT Tunstall album Eye to the Telescope. First song “Other Side of the World”. Amazing album. She did others, but don’t come close to this album.
Carly Simon - That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be
Mission Of Burma - That’s When I Reach for my Revolver
Arlo Guthrie - Alice’s Restaurant Massacree
Metallica - Hit the Lights
Metal Church was close to it but they made their eponymously named song on their first eponymously named album number 2. So close! - Metal Church
My dipping into metal made me think of Kerry King on the first Beasties album (Eat Me!). While Kerry didn’t play on their intro track, the great Tony Iommi did (awesome Sweet Leaf sample). Plus, the great Bonham drum sample. The good ole days when sampling was rampant…and awesome. Give Paul’s Boutique a spin for the ultimate example.
Beastie Boys - Rhymin & Stealin
I’ll add another vote for R.E.M.'s “Radio Free Europe.” A winner leading off an album full of winners. I think I’ll always find it rather remarkable that they were that good that quickly.
The history on this one seems a little iffy. After Joe Walsh left the James Gang, he formed a band called Barnstorm and cut three albums. However it seems that some or all of them were released as Joe Walsh solo albums. Wikipedia lists “The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get” (which is an awesome album title) as his first solo album, so here you go.
“Sleep To Dream” by Fiona Apple is an amazing career launch
As others have said about other bands tracks, it lets you know what you’re going to get. That’s even more true with the album cover. Just looking at the album cover, before you even played it, you know that you were in for a heavy metal album, even though the term hadn’t been invented yet.
From my teenage years, a rather obscure one. The local AOR station pushed the band pretty hard.