I’m listening to the intro to Money for Nothing on the radio and it’s one of those sounds that stands head and shoulders above the rest of most recordings.
It made me want to explore the idea of how you feel when hearing either the intro to a tune or a riff within it that just blows you away.
Pink Floyd’s Money whenever it started on a jukebox or over the radio used to make me stop in my tracks and just listen.
Allman Brothers version of Stormy Monday.
Name some others.
The guitar solo in Radiohead’s “Lucky.”
The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” gives me a strange, eerie thrill. The first time I heard it, it was as if I were taking a mind-altering drug. Also Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung.” Goosebump delight.
A minute or so into Portishead’s Strangers the whole tune just kicks off with a monstrous bass rumble. This cannot possibly be played too loud.
Riders on the Storm – the Doors
Superstition – Stevie Wonder
What’d I Say – Ray Charles
Especially two thirds into Elvis’ If I Can Dream. Every time. Year after year.
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the intro to Broadsword (Tull) kind of a martial drum thing that stirs the blood. Aqualung of course
The opening of Foo Fighter’s Everlong.
oh, and the “Stop!” at the start of Pixies’ Where Is My Mind.
The bass at the start of Bauhaus’s Bela Lugosi’s Dead.
The opening notes of Dead Can Dance’s *Saltarello/I]
Oh yes to both! 
The latter is such a *doleful * note!
How about Carmina Burana by Carl Orff?
The Very Thing That Makes You Rich by Ry Cooder and David Lindley
Fat Man In The Bathtub by Little Feat
*New York State Of Mind * by Diane Schurr
Anything Kathleen Battle sings.
*Requiem *by Mozart.
Actually that one scares me.
Camilla (The Old, Old Story) by The Art of Noise – a soft, wistful, almost melancholy song with a beautiful arrangement. One thing I like about the album this is on (In Visible Silence) is that it is followed by Chameleon’s Dish which is a boisterous, uptempo song that is remarkably adept at pulling you out of the sweet reverie of Camilla and making you want to get up and move. It’s a brilliant example of the kind of emotional manipulation music can do.
“Gibsom Street.” By Laura Nyro. Actually, pretty much her entire **New York Tendaberry ** album from 1969.
The last riff of the Song “Hives” from Botch’s American Nervoso.
Music from “Twin Peaks.”
Music by Julee Cruise (which overlaps the above)
When the vocals kick in in Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
Sitting On Top Of The World by Cream.
From the moment the song begins, Eric Clapton makes his guitar scream the most sorrowful sounding blues notes. There is one note he hits during his guitar solo about two minutes in that is absolutely the saddest sounding note I have ever heard played. It gives me chills every time.