# Intros to songs/tunes that you can identify almost immediately **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 3, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468 "2005-08-03T20:31:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sengkelat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Sengkelat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sengkelat)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/41 "2005-08-05T05:51:49Z")
You Better You Bet by The Who; it has a very distinctive first note. I Zimbra, Talking Heads. Though I could recognize most of TH’s catalogue fairly quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/42 "2005-08-05T06:14:40Z")
Adding to the pile of classic rock: Yes - “Roundabout”, “Heart of the Sunrise”, “Owner of a Lonely Heart”, “Starship Trooper”, I can go on and on… Deep Purple - “Space Truckin’”, “Highway Star” Jethro Tull - “Locomotive Breath”, “Thick as a Brick” Black Sabbath - “Black Sabbath”, “Iron Man” ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/43 "2005-08-05T07:53:48Z")
\*\*Enter Sandman \*\* - Metallica That’s one of the easiest for me to identify. I was a real Metallica-Head in my early teenhood. The first note, across a crowded room and I’m off with the headbanging. Lots of my favourite songs will trigger a cry of happiness upon the playing of the first note, but I’ve got a lot of favourite songs so the list is just well too much to add in here. Plus I forget them unless I hear them. What I’m more impressed/scared with is remembering every word/note to a song that you’ve not heard in six or more years. I get that with a lot of the pop songs from the early '90s, songs I didn’t like or listen to, they’ll come on VH1 and I’ll start singing merrily away. Blech. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/44 "2005-08-05T08:15:11Z")
All of the songs I own…but from the top of my head, I’ll say: **See Emily Play** -Pink Floyd. Very distinct opening. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/45 "2005-08-05T08:19:53Z")
Too many to name. My father used to play a little game with me growing up, since I was around four or five: If I could identify a few dozen songs in 3 seconds or less, I won the “Boogie Prize” (okay, it helps to know my father’s nickname is “Boogieman”) This game continued until… well… until I left home two years ago. I usually got ice cream or swedish fish. My favourite distinctive ones many others may recognise: Parklife - Blur (_any_ Blur song, including B-sides and rares - but Parklife is pretty distinctive) One Night in Bangkok - Murrey Head Breath From Another - Esthero Divide - Assemblage 23 (again, _any_, but this one is easy) Kelly Watch the Stars - Air Come and Play in the Milky Night - Stereolab (see also: Cybele’s Reverie) Making Plans for Nigel - XTC _Any_ Smiths songs Nightclubbing - Iggy Pop Common People - Pulp Windowlicker - Aphex Twin Feel Good, Inc. - Gorillaz I Think I’m Paranoid - Garbage Veronica - Elvis Costello Running in the Family - Level 42 The Riddle - Nik Kershaw Jerkin’ Back and Forth - Devo Cars - Gary Numan Almost any Pet Shop Boys song (my favourite is Different Point of View 😃 ) Chupacabras - Chixdiggit Did I just date myself as a young’un? Or at least an approaching middlin’? I know most of the classics named here, but I wanted to add a few more recent tunes to the mix (and you know, I _am_ getting old - they’re not all that recent!). ---
**Author:** ![Roland\_Orzabal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@Roland\_Orzabal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roland_Orzabal)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/46 "2005-08-05T08:50:10Z")
My similar-in-music-tastes best bud and I like to astound our other friends with this. We’ll have them sit at the computer, open up iTunes, pick any TFF, Radiohead or Mesh track (and I do mean _any_, including b-sides and remixes), and click “Play-Pause” in as rapid succession as they can. This gives us approximately one second of playtime in which to identify the song. He’s stronger at Radiohead b-sides and early Mesh while I am more adept than he at remixes, but between the two of us, our success rate exceeds 98%, and most of the error is due to our inability to distinguish between the songs that begin with near-silence. We can also do this with the entire Cowboy Bebop soundtrack In addition to this, I can do most Cat Stevens, most Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, some Placebo, some Beck, some Simple Minds, and (for reasons I don’t quite understand) some Eagles, in this manner. The geekery abounds. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/47 "2005-08-05T08:58:10Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > . . .for the intro I play a D7sus4. Is that what you play? I play G7 sus4 (barred not open). But the record has (at least) two guitars, one of them a 12 string, and a piano. So the correct chord isn’t playable with one pair of hands. IIRC George actually played some funny open chord… ```auto From wikipedia: [quote] "It wasn't just George Harrison playing it and it wasn't just the Beatles playing on it... There was a piano in the mix." To be exact, he claims that Harrison was playing the following notes on his 12 string guitar: a2, a3, d3, d4, g3, g4, c4, and another c4; McCartney played a d3 on his bass; producer George Martin was playing d3, f3, d5, g5, and e6 on the piano, while Lennon played a loud c5 on his six-string guitar. [/quote] Glad to be of service. Share and enjoy. ``` ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2005, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468/48 "2005-08-05T11:26:42Z")
Though a few people have been successful off boards, no one on the SDMB has been able to identify the ‘Cryptic’ clue (The first letter of each track title spells the theme of the puzzle) of the opening lines from these 23 songs. You don’t need to know every title to correctly answer the clue. [Link to .WMA File. 23 Tracks. 1 Minute 35 seconds long. 1.135 Mb](http://www.bucksdiversions.com/Audio/SDMB+Medley+01.WMA) All the songs have something in common & that’s what the clue is [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intros-to-songs-tunes-that-you-can-identify-almost-immediately/315468.md?page=2)