When I heard Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, I thought it was a corny, but yet catchy song and predicted it would become a classic.
“Sweet Dreams Are Made of This,” first heard as an import 45 on a suburban community college radio station. No doubt in my mind that it would take “New Wave” mainstream in a big way.
"White Wedding,"working in a record store wondering when the rest of the world would discover Billy Idol. It took a year between the album’s release and the song’s hit.
When I heard Paradise City by Guns N Roses, and saw the video, I got this feeling that something had happened, that the god awful eighties was over, and the poodle rock era was done with, finally. As a rocker, this was a very special moment, and one of the few triumphs in my life, since - well, I was right. The Guns N Roses killed the eighties. Then came the grunge etc, but boy, Paradise City – being a good song or bad – killed the horse others flogged away.
Not saying that this is the truth, but this is the song I came to think of; I knew it – and the band – was a classic.
I do this all the time. Maybe I’m just listen to sources that only play “hits” or I have very good taste in music.
I choose the latter explaination.
I was teaching at an elementary school. They had a talent show. It was in the early nineties. A couple six grade boys did an air guitar act to Smells Like Teen Spirit. I only got to here the intro because the principal (whom I had never liked) turned it off. I was in my early 30’s at them time and I remember thinking, what was that? it sounded awesome!
I also remember the first time I heard the Knack’s My Sharona. I knew that would be a hit.
Sober by Tool and Mountain Song by Jane’s Addiction- I remember hearing the song and watching the videoes on MTV and thinking to myself “WOW!! That is a sound I ain’t never heard” or something like that. I knew I had to go out buy the albums right away, which is not something I normally do. I usually wait for a few more songs. Lenny Kravitz may have already been a hit by the time the Mama Said album came out but after hearing the song Mama Said I had to go out an buy that album. The same thing happened with Loser by Beck, I knew I had heard a new sound in music and had to get the album. Okay, last one, Head Like a Hole by Nine Inch Nails caught my attention and, you guessed it, I had to buy the album.
I was in Rolling Stone Records in Norridge, IL. Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads came over the loudspeakers (and it was loud). I bought the LP on the spot.
Okay, Loser I can get behind. It was the only time I remember where I was:
– Exposed to a completely new (to me) sound
– Recognized it as a game-changing classic
– Rushed out and bought it
Actually number two is sort of questionable, as the first reaction me and my roommate had when we first saw it was 
. But me, in a good way, and I was torn between it becoming a hugely memorable hit and only a hugely memorable hit for myself only.
The only thing that approaches that much of a game-changing sound for me was my first encounter with techno rap (i.e. Jam On It, Electric Street-whatever, etc.,) but I was too young to have enough disposable income to buy any of it, or I would have.
After watching night after night of “meh” musical guests on David Letterman through the 80s-90s I remember seeing an unknown Greenday perform Basketcase in 1994 on his show. Their stage presence was so fresh and the song so catchy I remember thinking “Yep, these guys are gonna be big.”
When I first heard Audioslave’s Like a Stone I thought it would be a classic. Doesn’t seem like it will be anymore though.
It was pretty obvious from the get go that I was destined to hear Elton John’s “Your Song” for the rest of my life.
When I was a young teenager, I mostly listened to top-40 stuff (which was, IMO, a lot better back in the late 70s than it is now). But I had this one friend who was kind of a “bad girl” type–I was a goody two shoes, but she smoked pot, slept with guys, etc. Somehow we got along great, I think because we didn’t judge or try to change each other. But anyway, when I went to her house she used to play the most amazing music–what I guess was called AOR, but I didn’t know that at the time. Pink Floyd, Queen, Led Zeppelin…I remember the first time I heard Pink Floyd’s “Money,” and then the rest of the DSOTM album…wow. If this is what the stoner kids were listening to, they were on to something! I think hanging out at her house was the beginning of my interest in prog rock.
had about the same experience with Counting Crows- first hearing Mr. jones on the radio, then seeing them perform Round Here on Letterman. With the Letterman appearance- I had been hyping them to my friends for a few days before they were on, and we sat around watching. After the last notes, we all kind of paused for a second, very cool.
I remember one summer when I was home from college, the video for **Send Me On My Way **by Rusted Root came on MTV. I was like…yep…when I go back in the fall, that is going to be playing at every fraternity party.
Of course I remember the first time we saw the new video from the **Beastie Boys ** called Sabotage, I think were all simultaneously like “what the fuck is this” and “this is the most awesome thing I’ve ever seen!”
You were at the wrong age. 
Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirt, Pearl Jam’s Jeremy and Alive, Soundgarden’s Outshined, and **Alice in Chains’ Man in the Box **all came out my freshman year in college (1991) and played constantly, either on MTV or on someone’s stereo.
Unfortunately so did **Two Princes **by The Spin Doctors.:dubious:
I still remember the first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. Friday night hanging out at a friends house after the (high school) football game was over, MTV was on TV but no one was really paying it much attention. As the songs starts suddenly everyone’s paying attention… 
Cherub Rock is another song that struck me as something special immediately but I don’t think I’ll find much support that it’s an unequivocal “classic” here.
Fake Plastic Trees was an OMG moment too…Those “Creep” guys have really stepped it up, I thought.
When I first heard Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer”, I knew that song would be a monster hit.