# great opening songs on debut albums **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392 "2010-02-25T15:22:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/61 "2010-02-27T06:04:33Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour, off _[Vivid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivid_%28album%29)_. One of the most underrated bands of the last 20 years, if you ask me. AGREED. They rock so hard it’s not funny. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/62 "2010-02-27T06:29:55Z")
**The Cars** Let the good times roll [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOhdlVUg9uc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOhdlVUg9uc) \*\*The Jam \*\* Art School [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqiMfPe6U7g](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqiMfPe6U7g) ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/63 "2010-02-27T06:33:20Z")
Haircut 100… “Love plus one” on Pelican West… Kickass album… great voice…and Blair Cunningham (later of The pretenders) on the drums… ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/64 "2010-02-27T06:39:40Z")
Has anyone mentioned “Mirror in the Bathroom” by The (English) Beat yet? If not, I’ll add that to my list. ---
**Author:** ![mkecane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@mkecane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkecane)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/65 "2010-02-28T04:13:54Z")
“Dramamine” by Modest Mouse on **This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About**. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/66 "2010-02-28T13:12:37Z")
Richard Thompson - _Roll Over Vaughan Williams_. You can’t get more of a mission statement than the first verse: Gentle ladies, gentle men Waiting till the dance begin So carefully we come to speak a word for all to hear If you listen, if you should We won’t be misunderstood But don’t expect the words to ring too sweetly on the ear Live in fear, live in fear, live in fear… ---
**Author:** ![aerodave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f08c70/32.png) [@aerodave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aerodave)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/67 "2010-02-28T13:51:09Z")
So many of the really good ones are taken… “96 Quite Bitter Beings” from **CKY** ’s _Volume 1_ “Voices” from **Disturbed** ’s _The Sickness_ “Undead” from **Hollywood Undead** ’s “_Swan Songs_” (okay, so “great” is relative) “Blister” from **House of Broken Promises** ’s _Using the Useless_ (It’s new and fairly underground, so I don’t know if it qualifies for great…but it fuckin rocks) “Get Over It” from **OK Go** ’s _OK Go_ “I Don’t Know” from **Ozzy Osbourne** ’s _Blizzard of Ozz_ (His first _solo_ album) “Black” from S **evendust** ’s _Sevendust_ “In the Meantime” from **Spacehog** ’s _Resident Alien_ (sharing the name with the Helmet debut upthread) “Dead & Bloated” from **Stone Temple Pilots** ’s _Core_ “Balls” from **Taintstick** ’s _6 Lbs of Sound_ (I’m only half joking…) Honorable mention to the lead and title track from **Pantera** ’s _Cowboys from Hell_. Yes, they had four studio albums before that, but that was essentially a different band with the same name and three of the same members. Most people would agree that they so thoroughly reinvented themselves after Phil Anselmo joined the band that _CfH_ is, for all practical purposes, the debut album of the Pantera everyone knows. They don’t even list their early glam metal releases on their own website. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/68 "2010-02-28T18:26:16Z")
Your Song–Elton John ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/69 "2010-02-28T19:51:37Z")
[Waiting Room](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMOAXm94VWo) from the first **Fugazi** EP (or from 13 Songs, if you prefer). ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/70 "2010-03-01T00:01:03Z")
This one’s a little obscure, but here goes: The Beatles - I Saw Her Standing There (from Please Please Me) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/71 "2010-03-01T00:51:56Z")
I was just looking at this thread title again when the mp3 of “The Only Difference Between Suicide and Marytrdom is Press Coverage” by Panic! at the Disco came on. So I thought I’d add that (although it’s only slightly better than average for a song on that album, it’s still great since most of that album is great.) ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/72 "2010-03-01T21:25:10Z")
I have to add “None of the Above” by The Bears and “Mighty Little Man” (my theme song) by Steve Burns (of “Blues Clues” fame.) ---
**Author:** ![ShadowFacts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shadowfacts/32/2934_2.png) [@ShadowFacts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShadowFacts)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/73 "2010-03-01T21:47:41Z")
“Keep Yourself Alive” by Queen deserves a mention here. I’ve always been a fan of “Everything Right is Wrong Again” off of They Might Be Giants’ eponymous debut. The Stray Cats’ American debut album, Built for Speed, opens with “Rock This Town.” Can’t get a much better start than that, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/74 "2010-03-01T23:47:37Z")
_Afterwards_ on _The Aerosol Grey Machine_ by **Van der Graaf Generator** _It Happened Today_ on _Airconditioning_ by **Curved Air** _Dominion Road_ on **The Mutton Birds** _Operating Tracks_ on _Geography_ by **Front 242** It has aged, though… _Suite: Judy Blue Eyes_ on **Crosby Stills and Nash** ---
**Author:** ![phungi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phungi/32/395_2.png) [@phungi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phungi)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/75 "2010-03-02T00:22:42Z")
also: _Hello City_ off of Gordon, by the Barenaked ladies ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/76 "2010-03-02T05:13:47Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > “Break On Through (To the Other Side)” - The Doors I was just telling my kid last week that, thanks to hanging out in **Bob’s Cynical Pool Hall Basement** ™, we got to hear albums before the singles were big on the radio. So while most people were introduced to the Doors with _“Light My Fire”_, for a couple of us it was _“Break On Through”_. Picture the lights out (except the black ones, of course), and the incense wafting and the vinyl spinning, and you get to listen to this entire unknown album called _“The Doors”_… Nice. We chased our pleasures there / Dug our treasures there … ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/77 "2010-03-02T15:09:18Z")
Can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned - I’ve always liked Dire Straits’ debut album, especially its first track (‘Down to the Waterline’ and ‘Six Blade Knife’, even if ‘Sultans of Swing’ was the big hit track. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/78 "2010-03-02T15:41:31Z")
**Once Bitten, Twice Shy** from Ian Hunter’s first solo album. **So It Goes** was the opener Nick Lowe’s _Pure Pop for Now People_. (The UK version, _Jesus of Cool_, had the less catchy\*\* Music For Money \*\*as the first track.) ---
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/79 "2010-03-02T16:33:18Z")
> [@DragonAsh](#): > > Can’t believe this hasn’t been mentioned - I’ve always liked Dire Straits’ debut album, especially its first track (‘Down to the Waterline’ and ‘Six Blade Knife’, even if ‘Sultans of Swing’ was the big hit track. It has been: post #44 > [@](#): > > _Dire Straits made a very nice debut with “Down to the Waterline” on their first album._ ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-opening-songs-on-debut-albums/530392/80 "2010-03-02T17:01:52Z")
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