# Song that hit you the first time you heard it **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 10, 2007, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875 "2007-11-10T05:13:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/41 "2007-11-10T21:23:56Z")
I remember the night we were coming back from band practice, and “Roxanne” by The Police came on the radio for the first time. We had to pull over and turn it up, it was so unlike anything else at the time. Nobody had heard of this group before. It seemed that anybody who could write music like this was destined for greatness. ---
**Author:** ![ConsciousStarDebris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@ConsciousStarDebris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ConsciousStarDebris)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/42 "2007-11-10T21:28:26Z")
Time- Pink Floyd You never give me your money- The Beatles Tame- The Pixies ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/43 "2007-11-10T22:08:45Z")
Utravox - _Vienna_, my dad was working for polygram and brought home a copy of the single before it was released. He sat my bother & I in the lounge, turned out all the lights and we sat in the dark listening to something that was totally unlike anything we’d heard before. Brilliant. REM’s _Losing My Religion_. Because that was exactly how I felt about my life when I first heard it. I’ll think of more. Great thread idea. Yay nostalgia. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/44 "2007-11-10T22:20:09Z")
I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard Tina Turner sing “Proud Mary” on the radio. And I’ve loved her ever since (not all of her music but her). I also distinctly remember and was heavily impacted by my first listen to The Temptations’ “Please Return Your Love To Me,” particularly the violins. The strings brought out the sense of loss in that song like nothing else, and forever turned me on to the use of violins (and later french horns) to evoke specific emotions in pop music. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/45 "2007-11-10T22:35:36Z")
“Bend and Break” --Keane “The Blower’s Daughter” --Damien Rice “Big Heart Sun” --Eddie Vedder “My weakness” --Moby “Goodbye Horses” --Q Lazzarus ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/46 "2007-11-10T22:38:22Z")
Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”. First time I heard it was, of all things, when I was playing “Homeworld”. (Some of you may remember - the intro scene, where your homeworld has just been totally sterilized by the Bad Guys?) This is the purest depiction of loss and grief that’s ever been put to music, IMHO. Extraordinary stuff. ---
**Author:** ![MonaLizaT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@MonaLizaT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonaLizaT)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/47 "2007-11-10T22:55:55Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] **Wolves, Lower** - R.E.M. And then later, **Radio Free Europe** (also R.E.M.) The songs were dark and the lyrics were marvelously inscrutable, and then there was the jangly Peter Buck guitar work, and I was _thunderstruck_. [/QUOTE] Back in 1986, I was a physics major at a small liberal arts college in the south. My friends and I were very much into REM (they played our college gym!) and I remember very clearly the day that Life’s Rich Pageant hit the stores. My friend, Rich, went out and bought the cassette and we all sat in his car, in front of the physics building, and listened to it through. A great memory. The band has lost me in its later years. I second the affection for Like A Hurricane. Somebody to Shove by Soul Asylum gets me every time (and makes me call my parents) All the songs on my ipod essentially meet the criteria for this thread: there has to be something special about them. ---
**Author:** ![Layla01](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/layla01/32/15552_2.png) [@Layla01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Layla01)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/48 "2007-11-10T23:07:22Z")
_Solsbury Hill_ by Peter Gabriel - the changing rhythm was so hypnotic, I just loved it from the start. - Tears of a Clown\* by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - a slice of pure pop genius that led me to a lifetime love of soul and sixties music. _I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For_ by U2 - I still remember the day I first heard it, it’s one of my fondest memories ever. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/49 "2007-11-10T23:09:35Z")
[QUOTE=Layla01] _Solsbury Hill_ by Peter Gabriel - the changing rhythm was so hypnotic, I just loved it from the start. - Tears of a Clown\* by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - a slice of pure pop genius that led me to a lifetime love of soul and sixties music. _I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For_ by U2 - I still remember the day I first heard it, it’s one of my fondest memories ever. [/QUOTE] Given your username, I was expecting some Eric Clapton. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/50 "2007-11-10T23:21:11Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t want to speak for anyone 3lse but what the hell do some of these songs mean? _Selling the Drama_, best as I can understand, is about the experience of being a musician and struggling not to exploit your own experiences in the interest of fame. Actually, it’s more about exploiting those experiences for what the artist hopes will be the greater good – suffering with a purpose. But as mentioned upthread, it’s not what the song is about that makes it. The music to _Throwing Copper_ somehow perfectly communicates that it’s possible to transcend the shithole that is reality and live in spiritual ecstasy… not only that, but that the shithole that is reality is a part of what makes ecstasy possible. It is a divine message encoded in rock music. It is awe. And the lyrics complement that message beautifully. The first time I heard Chevelle’s _The Red_ I was floored. _The Red_ is about dealing with someone who has serious anger and violence issues. Then I bought the album, and I heard _Family System_, and I thought my head was going to explode I was so simultaneously overjoyed and fascinated. Chevelle is the prettiest rage there is in all of existence. I also remember the first time I heard Keane’s ‘‘Somewhere Only We Know.’’ Stopped dead in my tracks, turned up the radio. Some things just speak to your heart I guess. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/51 "2007-11-10T23:52:12Z")
[QUOTE=olivesmarch4th] _Selling the Drama_, best as I can understand, is about the experience of being a musician and struggling not to exploit your own experiences in the interest of fame. Actually, it’s more about exploiting those experiences for what the artist hopes will be the greater good – suffering with a purpose. But as mentioned upthread, it’s not what the song is about that makes it. The music to _Throwing Copper_ somehow perfectly communicates that it’s possible to transcend the shithole that is reality and live in spiritual ecstasy… not only that, but that the shithole that is reality is a part of what makes ecstasy possible. It is a divine message encoded in rock music. It is awe. And the lyrics complement that message beautifully. [/QUOTE] Throwing Copper is part of the music that my wife and I “courted” to. I remember buying the CD and sitting in my car reading the lyrics and blasting it for the first time. A GREAT sophomore album, and an amazing follow-up to Mental Jewelry. I recall seeing them at the Chamelon in Lancaster at the end of their first “big” tour and those songs rocked in a small venue. Even 10 years later, The Dam at Otter Creek, TBD, Top, and Iris are still among the songs that give me goosebumps, chills, adrenaline, and pause to think. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/52 "2007-11-11T00:33:47Z")
Phish “Rift”. I was flipping around on the radio one day and heard it, and had what they refer to on NPR as a “driveway moment” – I had to sit there in the garage until the song was over so I could find out who it was and what the song was. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/53 "2007-11-11T00:34:01Z")
[QUOTE=Bearflag70] _Reflex_ by Duran Duran [/QUOTE] ABSOLUTELY!! I drove my mum insane playing that song over…and over… ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/54 "2007-11-11T00:38:24Z")
“Detroit Rock City” by Kiss. I was eight years old and a cousin of mine who had one hell of a stereo system wanted to show it off. I can remember sitting on his couch, my jaw dropping to the floor. “Lunatic Fringe” by Red Ryder. LOVE the lyrics. “With Or Without You”-God, I LOVE the tension in this song. It never really resolves itself and the Edge’s guitar playing is just…whuff. “Mr Blue Sky” by ELO. Excellent, excellent song. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/55 "2007-11-11T01:10:54Z")
The first time I ever heard “Ghost in this House” was listening Alison Krauss sing it live at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. It was a religious experience. Some others: Blue Oyster Cult’s _Don’t Fear the Reaper_ Dire Strait’s _Sultans of Swing_ and _Money for Nothing_ the Stones _Gimme Shelter_ The Who _Baba O’Riley_ and the whole of the album _Tommy_ Alice Cooper’s _School’s Out_ Bob Dylan’s _Tangled up in Blue_ AC/DC’s _You Shook Me All Night Long_ ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/56 "2007-11-11T01:15:32Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Excellent] Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”. First time I heard it was, of all things, when I was playing “Homeworld”. (Some of you may remember - the intro scene, where your homeworld has just been totally sterilized by the Bad Guys?) This is the purest depiction of loss and grief that’s ever been put to music, IMHO. Extraordinary stuff. [/QUOTE] It was also used to great dramatic effect in both **Platoon** and **The Elephant Man** and in one other film whose title I can’t recall right now. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/57 "2007-11-11T01:20:49Z")
[QUOTE=vivalostwages] It was also used to great dramatic effect in both **Platoon** and **The Elephant Man** and in one other film whose title I can’t recall right now. [/QUOTE] It has been used in _Lorenzo’s Oil, El Norte, Amélie, S1m0ne,_ and _The Scarlet Letter_ (the execrable Demi Moore version.) ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/58 "2007-11-11T02:21:41Z")
Two from La 5ª Estación, whom I love dearly: [Para No Decirte Adiós](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qiX-AOWRPE) (not the video, cause it’s not a single, but that’s the song played over a really bad YouTube montage) and [El Sol No Regresa](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veWyed7HtxI). The second is from their first big album and the first is from their second. As soon as I heard “El Sol No Regresa” on the radio, I went and bought the album. I loved it immediately; I bought their second album on its release date. Because of where I was in my life, “Para No Decirte Adiós” moved me to tears on my first listen. Keane’s [Somewhere Only We Know](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmXY2MSrguE). Another one where I bought the CD soon after hearing it. Fleming & John’s [Sadder Day](http://www.flemingandjohn.com/audio/sadder_day.mp3) – that’s a link to an MP3 from their own website. I heard it after I had already bought the album, but it still smacked me when I realized what they were singing about. Celia Cruz’ [La Vida es una Carnaval](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nBFWzpWXuM) (Life is a Carnival). Another one that I first heard in a rough time of my life. How anyone can listen to this and not need to dance, I will never understand. Julieta Venegas’ [Lento](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-jApZlVO-o). First time I ever liked an accordion, and then I went and bought all her albums. I was shocked that this song was off only her third, because it sounds so much more mature. Cyndi Lauper’s [I Drove All Night](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUjOs-_A2Ls). Her voice plus the instrumentation plus the urgency of it all. Awesome. Shakira’s [Ojos Así](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAlTlcXGGe4). I love Shakira, and I won’t be made fun of. Her Spanish-language stuff is mostly fantastic. This is one of her best, easily – and it’s the song that made my “like” turn to “love”. It’s hiding at the end of a decent album, but it really made me stand up and look at her other stuff. Pizzicato Five’s [Beautiful Day](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zj_5nA4BDU), which I first heard live on _Viva Variety_ (am I the only one who remembers?) and then ran out and ordered all their albums off of Amazon. I didn’t and don’t understand a word of it, but it’s just so damn catchy and poppy and wonderful. I’ve read translations of the lyrics and they can be pretty inane, but it sounds so cool in Japanese. I know that there are more, because I get hit by songs a _lot_ and then run out and get everything I can by that particular artist, but I can’t think of any more right now. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/59 "2007-11-11T02:22:45Z")
Waltz #2, by Elliot Smith Knight Moves, by Suzanne Vega Lighthouse, by The Waifs White Bird, by It’s a Beautiful Day The Story of Isaac, by Leonard Cohen I Had a King, by Joni Mitchell and my all time favorite [Witches Hat\* (YouTube)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Z00tEMEIo) \*standard acquired taste hippie weirdness warning applies ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875/60 "2007-11-11T02:57:14Z")
A lot of songs have been love at first listen, but I guess here are some highlights: ELO - _Mr Blue Sky_. Irrepressible, this song still never fails to draw a smile, and the choral part towards the end is breathtaking. Flaming Lips - _Fight Test_. Awesomely layered with great melodies and counter-melodies, and really stirring lyrics. MC Solaar - _Solaar Pleure_. Builds up with increasing desperation, drawing in all sorts of religious imagery as it crescendos to the end. Very nice, contrasting chorus, as well. Elliott Smith - _King’s Crossing_ (album version). Holy smokes, somehow quite foot-thumping despite being so intense. I knew how Elliott left this world when I first heard this, so there was no shortage of chills at first listen, either. Barbara - _Gottingen_. Hauntingly sung song by a Holocaust survivor of all the things she would miss in a German town if war ravaged the land once more. New Pornographers - _Letter from an Occupant_. High energy, bubbly pop that just made me want to dance, with many nice transitions between sections that keep up the energy throughout. Radiohead - _Fake Plastic Trees_. When it got to the line “if I could be what you wanted”, I almost lost it. One of their simplest songs, but also one of their best. REM - _It’s the End of the World As We Know It_. Spectacular, like fireworks going off in my feet, it’s a jumper. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-that-hit-you-the-first-time-you-heard-it/425875.md?page=4)