In the spirit of the old Name That Tune shows on radio and TV, where the contestants wagered on how quickly, or in how few notes, they could name a piece of popular music, but not limiting this to “pop” necessarily, what pieces of music can you identify within three notes of the record beginning or from the intro to a live piece?
Bennie and the Jets from the opening chord.
Money (Pink Floyd) when the cash register sound starts
Sophisticated Lady first two notes
What are some of yours?
Free Bird–the studio version has a very distinct organ intro, live version has a piano intro.
Bohemian Rhapsody
We Will Rock You
Under Pressure
or almost any other Queen song.
“Allentown” by Billy Joel — starts with a work whistle.
“You May Be Right” by Billy Joel — starts with a breaking window.
“Something to Talk About” by Bonnie Raitt — starts with a G chord with an odd string tuning that no other song I’ve ever heard uses.
See, I have almost-perfect pitch, so this game is really easy for me. I can distinguish what a song is by what key it’s in, so that’s kind of cheating. A 3-finger open G chord on guitar is very distinctive and I never confuse it with a G-chord barre on the 3rd fret.
Maybe I should put some incredibly tiny song snippets up — three notes, as you say — and we could actually make a game of it. 
Beautiful idea! Have at.
PDF WARNING:
As a side note to this thread’s main theme, this Jamey Aebersold Interval Chart (PDF) is based on the idea that you can use song/tune introductory notes to identify the various musical intervals.
Useful tool if that sort of thing amuses you.
Beethoven’s Fifth
BA BA BA BAAAAA
Very true. But count the notes it takes. Could you get it in fewer?
I can identify *A Hard Day’s Night * with just the opening chord. The same goes for Also Sprach Zarathustra.
I played this game once - somebody played me very brief snippets of random songs from their iTunes collection, and I mean literally less than one second of the start of the song. It was really surprising how easy is can be to identify songs that way, just from one note or drum beat, or even part of one note. Something about the timbre of the guitar/synth/drum or whatever makes it a lot easier than you might think. And my knoweldge of pop and rock music is not at all what you’d call encylopaedic.
Well said. Is there a better definition of “hook” (as applied to music) than this?
That was the very first tune I thought of, and I believe I could get it by the second note.
Do drumbeats count as notes? Because I can nail “Born To Run” from the first chord.
There’s a piece most of you should recognize just from a description of the first note; a low trill (G?) on a solo clarinet.
Rhapsody in Blue?
As far as the idea(s) of this thread are concerned, I’m mainly looking at recorded and readily available to the public music. That’s a separate universe from sheet music and other forms that may not have quite the stamp of individuality that records have.
Just as an example, if you get used to listening to a record of multliple songs or tunes, without changing it between tunes, odds are you can start humming or “doodling” the notes for the next one during the gap of silence between them. I have any number of albums and CD’s like that. When I hear them played on the radio, it’s that first little “whatever” that gives them away.
But even with some songs and tunes, it’s that distinctive opening riff or sound that catches you ear, even if it’s a cover version that differs from the original. And it’s even true in some tunes that you can hear the composer’s stamp in those few notes.
I was mainly trying to get a feel for how others relate to the notion by way of personal favorites that have that characteristic.
“Sweet Jane” by the Velvet Underground has a unique sound to the intro.
“Happy Birthday”
A Hard Day’s Night opens with a very famous chord.
I nominate “Radar Love”. Hear the first notes of the intro and you know what it is.
“Lola” by the Kinks from the first chord.
“Money” by Pink Floyd before a note is played (the sound of the money is enough).
“Come Together” by the Beatles. Two notes.
“Her Majesty” by the Beatles from the introductory chord.
“A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum from the first note.
“Shine on Brightly” by Procol Harum from the first note.
“Paper Sun” by Traffic from the drums before a note is played.
“Rhapsody in Blue” from the first note.
“Tales of Brave Ulysses” by Cream from the first chord.