Damn…did quote tags when I should have done italics. Can a mod fix for me? Sorry! This always happens if I don’t preview.
The guitar intro to “Between Days” by the Cure.
If it qualifies, the opening of Beethoven’s fifth symphony.
The beginning rhythm of Rush’s instrumental “YYZ”: it’s those letters in Morse Code.
More trivia: YYZ is the airport code for Toronto, ON, Rush’s hometown.
The guitar riff that opens Edgar Winter’s Free Ride gets this white boy dancing. God, I love '70s rock.
Absolutely, it qualifies. I tried to suggest in the OP that any music, no matter the genre, no matter when or where you may have heard it, is okay for this sort of recollection.
Another way I might have worded the OP so as to be clearer about the project would be “Name (or identify) those little snippets of music, too brief to be the whole piece, that qualify as your favorite “hooks” or fragments.”
Other such items from Classical (as in “serious”) music that appeal to me are:
The repeating figure in The Sorceror’s Apprentice
That segment of Ride of the Valkyries they play everywhere
The little repeating figure in Fingal’s Cave Overture
The Omen theme from Carmina Burana (yes, I know one is based on the other but they do sound enough alike that I like them both)
The opening bars of Clair de Lune
The repeating figure in Ravel’s Bolero
Again, I could list dozens before slowing down.
Even if the “hook” is from some kid’s tune or TV theme or radio show, if it’s a favorite of yours, it’s fair game.
This was supposed to be more for fun than anything.
Z
Best Looking Boys - Promise Ring
Float On - Modest Mouse
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
the singing in the chorus from Somewhere Only We Know by Keane.
the “other” hook in Smells Like Teen Spirit (i.e. the two-note one. It changes the character of the song entirely.)
I forgot two :smack:
– The main* theme to The Wall
– Messages by OMD.
Somewhere Only We Know, The Wall Theme, and Messages all sound fairly similar, encompassing hope, sadness, and despair at the same time.
There’s a fourth hook that sounds like this and is just as good as them, but I created it and I’m not sharing 
*There’s another theme (counterpoint?) that figures a bit in The Wall but plays a major role in The Final Cut.
Mannish Boy by Muddy Waters
(or if you prefer, I’m a Man by Bo Diddley, since they are essentially the same song.)
(or any of the approximately 3,716,589 other songs composed of the same five note riff.)
The song “The Hook” by Blues Traveler has the best hook and explaines the concept.
[PQ Bach]
Really it’s more of a motiff that he uses to explore the theme."
[/PDQBach]
The intro to Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry (I can’t believe I’m the first to say that)
The intro to Boys Don’t Cry by The Cure
I don’t know if this is a hook, but the part in New Order’s Blue Monday where the drums speed up and then stop.
:eek:
How could I forget this? David Bowie’s Station to Station, when the song switches to dance mode. I think it’s at the line in my sig. It’s even better than Take Me Out.
And the beginning of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
And the beginning of “Badlands” by Springsteen. This big orchestral burst that promises an amazing anthem to follow.
The middle section of Paranoid Android (Radiohead). The “hook” that follows the lyrics “ambition makes you look pretty ugly” and “kicking squealing gucci little piggy”.
Gets me every time.
There seems (to me) to be some confusion about what a hook is, I’d call a lot of what’s been listed riffs (something that’s repeated), a hook is a catchy bit that makes the song and pulls you in.
Anyway:
The augmented-chord guitar intro in Kiss (the Prince version) that gets repeated just before “Kiss” through the song --sort of nicked from No Particular Place to go which has something very similar.
George’s guitar part that he plays under the last “Help” in, um, Help (go and have a listen).
The intro to Drive my Car, and “Beep beep, um-beep beep yeah!”
I’ll stop on the Beatles 'cause you can find two or three great hooks in just about anything they wrote.
The descending two-note slide(?) part in How Soon is Now you know, the sort of wailing guitar part.
The chiming guitars in Underwater Moonlight by the Soft Boys, the part that comes after the line “All those tiny insects look like you…”
The intro to September Gurls and the “Oo-oos” at the end of the chorus(es)
The “whistling” part in Walk Like an Egyption
The flat-fifth intro to Purple Haze
That’s enough for now.
…but that is (almost) the whole piece!
That’s true, but you could hum that “hook” to somebody you were wanting to have help you with the name of the piece and they would likely guess “Bolero” from that one little fragment. Yes, Ravel built a longish work from a repeating pattern, and maybe “hook” isn’t technically correct, but it’s the idea behind this thread.
Since I haven’t found a totally adequate definition for “hook” and since I assumed that Dopers would know what the term meant to them, I figured I’d use this thread to zoom in on the generally understood meaning.
Is that cheating? If so, spank me.
Argh! :smack: It’s from Kingdom of Love not Underwater Moonlight. No Soft Boys fans in the house?
:smack: I can’t belive I never made the connection.
and I’ve been playing it on bass (albeit badly) for years.
AND I know morse code.
:smack: :smack: :smack: