# Have you ever heard a song so good, your jaw literally dropped? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703 "2013-01-10T01:58:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/1 "2013-01-10T01:58:39Z")
I know this isn’t a golden oldie, but its the most recent one in my brain. A friend showed me a Dutch(?) dude called Krampfhaft and his stuff is super hot fire if you are into EDM. SOOOO future, man…[Stream Spit Thunder by Krampfhaft | Listen online for free on SoundCloud](https://soundcloud.com/krampfhaft/spit-thunder) Anyway. What song have you listened to that has made your jaw drop? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/2 "2013-01-10T02:09:29Z")
Enya’s “Wild Child.” The first time I ever heard it, I went “OMG, what IS that?!?” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sevencl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sevencl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sevencl)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/3 "2013-01-10T02:14:12Z")
So incredibly rarely, because I absolutely hate most music. Like, go tense and grit my teeth and close my eyes and cover my ears hate it. 99.9% of it. Wish someone would throw a grenade at the source of the noise hate it. So yeah, being that impressed with any music is incredibly rare for me. The first piece of music that ever struck me that way was part of Mozart’s Requiem, the Dies Irae. It was a life changing event, a piece of music that didn’t make me want to claw my ears off! Just a shame about the venue: I heard it in the cinema, as background music for a scene in X-Men 2. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqaARDsiJv4) ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/4 "2013-01-10T02:26:40Z")
There have been a few. I remember actually buying Pink’s “F-cking Perfect” inside of an hour from when I first heard it played (some of that time included the drive back to the house). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/5 "2013-01-10T03:24:00Z")
Not exactly literal jaw-dropping, but [“New Routine”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0U9CLYenOg) by Fountains of Wayne had me laughing and then amazed that I had never heard of a group that could record a song that good. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/6 "2013-01-10T03:43:26Z")
Old Man by Redlight Kings hit me like a ten ton brick. What’s nice is that my son is even more enamored of it than I am and always manages to evade saying why. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@I\_Made\_French\_Toast\_For\_You](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Made_French_Toast_For_You)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/7 "2013-01-10T03:45:13Z")
“Jaw-droppage” for me usually occurs when I hear something that’s “pop song” enough to instantly grab me, but lyrically or musically complex enough that I know I’ll have to listen to it a million more times in order to “get” it. Two recent-ish examples would be “[Fireworks](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztvr09J7KK4)” by Animal Collective and “[Good Intentions Paving Company](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STwVx6ynYjk)” by Joanna Newsom. Straight-up beautiful songs do the same. Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” or Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps”, for example. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/8 "2013-01-10T03:57:28Z")
Hey, I saw [this question on Reddit](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/168v1a/reddit_what_is_a_song_that_was_so_good_your_jaw/) today too! My answer here is the same as there… Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” which I heard when Terri Hemmert played it for the first time on WXRT, still a few months before she really broke through big in the States. I had already parked the car when it came on but I couldn’t turn it off until the entire song had finished. I was blown away. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/9 "2013-01-10T04:11:59Z")
Sure. Recently, a piano performance of Asturias (Leyenda) by Albeniz. I think the pianist was Berezovsky. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/10 "2013-01-10T04:26:33Z")
As a kid I’d only ever heard the single, edited, 3 minute version of The Doors “Light My Fire” on top 40 AM radio." When I was on vacation with my parents and siblings one year, probably around 1977 or or so, I was laying on a beach in St. Petersburg, FL, and I heard the full what, 8 minute version on a stereo FM boombox. I was mesmerized. In 1989 while driving down highway 401 in Toronto I heard Neil Young’s newest release “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” and was absolutely thrilled that Neil was back in the game after something like 10 years of experimental crap. I’m pretty sure I had a similar response to Deep Purple’s “Knockin’ at Your Back Door” but can’t quite remember where I was at the time. Why yes, I am a dinosaur. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/11 "2013-01-10T05:43:37Z")
Sinead O’Connor’s Just Like U Said It Would B On one of my earliest CDs. 1987 was it? Live or studio, still fills me with awe. The music, the lyrics, her vocals, the emotion, the beauty… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Qy5ZhDTxcFA/maxresdefault.jpg "SINÉAD O'CONNOR - just like u said it would b (1987)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy5ZhDTxcFA) ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/12 "2013-01-10T05:55:16Z")
Yes. Lots of them. But then, I’m prolly regularly exposed to more new (to me) music than most people. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/13 "2013-01-10T06:07:55Z")
For me, rarely. When I was in college, I took a class called “History of Rock and Roll,” so after having my mind blown about the historical significance of say the Beatles, Chuck Berry, and The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations, it’s tough for me to get really blown away by the latest top 40 song without learning about the song’s historical significance. Once in a while though, I get blown away by the use of Auto-Tune, such as the Home Intruder Song. I think this is really the wave of the future, where current events coincide with popular music. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/14 "2013-01-10T06:23:39Z")
My jaw didn’t drop but just recently I saw Blues Traveler live. I was about 20 feet from John Popper. He is so astoundingly good on harmonica I had to start laughing. He is so great at his instrument it is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/15 "2013-01-10T06:57:55Z")
The last song I had this reaction to, of all things, was R.E.M.'s cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” I heard it for the first time about a week ago and it’s amazingly vibrant and beautiful. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and my mouth may have been hanging open. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/16 "2013-01-10T07:03:39Z")
Gangnam Style ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/17 "2013-01-10T07:12:18Z")
Pachelbel’s Canon Joplin’s Weeping Willow Crawford’s version of Music of the Night The Four Seasons’ Let’s Hang On ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/18 "2013-01-10T07:13:20Z")
[Kate Bush’s _Sat In Your Lap_](http://youtu.be/9cIjariCM-c) was a shock, completely audacious. I have no idea what it would be like for someone who never heard it before to hear it today. I would like to think that it is such a unique sound that it wouldn’t sound particularly old. Others that hit me nearly that hard? [Siouxsie and the Banshees - _Spellbound_.](http://youtu.be/9otg_Cm50RE) I don’t use drugs, but I don’t think the song could have had more impact if I had been tripping. [Akiko Yano - _Rose Garden_](http://youtu.be/WRSm1osRINo). Absolutely perfect pop, even though I haven’t a clue what it’s about, but it thrilled and delighted me right from the first time I hear it. [Noe Venable - _Juniper_](http://youtu.be/38p7vVfzeB0). I knew I had discovered another genius songwriter from the first moment I heard it. It’s a different category, but there have been songs that I wasn’t knocked out by on record, but when I heard it live… Todd Rundgren - _Hawking_. No link, because I don’t think I could find the exact performance that moved me to tears at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, KS. And every time I hear it now, that live performance resonates. There are others like that, but “Best single live vocal performance you ever heard” deserves it’s own thread. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/19 "2013-01-10T07:22:11Z")
Every track on Jethro Tull’s _Songs from the Wood_. I saw them do _Hunting Girl_ at the Gorge, I could not believe it, freakin’ amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2013, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703/20 "2013-01-10T08:36:53Z")
So Many Robert Randolph – [_Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C3b1fmMmKM) The Knack - [_My Sharona_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVdnqEyToqg) Blue Man Group’s cover of [_Baba O’Riley_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_Y26JNd3g4) ELP’s [_Fanfare for the Common Man_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgpnlLz7WR0) Santana and Rob Thomas – [_Smooth_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXp413NynFk) Alison Krauss – [_Down to the River to Pray_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSif77IVQdY) Roberta Flack – [_The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOFrGbuUqnQ) Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson – [_Just Out of Reach_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Lhq4zDEzE) Linda Ronstadt and Aaron Neville – [_Don’t Know Much_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5qmDAyGEW4) Carly Simon – [_Let the River Run_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-tb-0GqTrA) Chicago – [_Color My World_](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN-AyNsDtN0) What can I say? I’m a sucker for sentiment (in my old age), and most of this music can still draw a very strong emotional reaction out of me. Unfortunately, I have burned out on some of them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-a-song-so-good-your-jaw-literally-dropped/646703.md?page=2)