Hooked, by Seabound, and Re-Align, by Stromkern. I heard them both and I just started bouncing. They’re fun.
I had the same reaction to:
“I Only Want to Be with You” by Hootie and the Blowfish
“Mary Mac” by Carbonleaf
“Rave On” done by Steeleye Span
The ones that sent me to the record store:
Oh What a World by Paul Brady
Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol which now has been overplayed on the radio 
Since it is so rare to absolutely love a song the very first time, I’ve kept a list over the past decade or so. I’m surprised at how long it’s gotten…
AFI The Missing Frame
Angels & Airwaves *The War *
Bad Religion *Infected *
Beastie Boys *Sabotage *
Buckcherry *Crazy Bitch *
Cake *Let Me Go *
Catherine Wheel *Black Metallic *
Charlatans UK, The The Only One I Know
Counting Crows Einstein on the Beach
Cracker Get Off This
Cracker *Teen Angst *
Dramarama *Last Cigarette *
Dramarama Work For Food
Elastica Stutter *
Fall Out Boy Dance, Dance *
Farm, The Groovy Train
Finger Eleven * Paralyzer
Foo Fighters The Best of You *
Foo Fighters Walking After You
Franz Ferdinand Take Me Out
Fratellis, The Flathead
Freedy Johnston Bad Reputation
Gabriel, Peter * The Book Of Love
Gorillaz DARE
Gorillaz Feel Good, Inc.
Inspiral Carpets This Is How It feels
Inspiral Carpets Two Worlds Collide
Jet * Are You Gonna Be My Girl
Lemonheads, The If I Could Talk I’d Tell You
Linkin Park Breaking the Habit
Linkin Park *Crawling *
Lush *Ladykillers *
Midnight Oil The Dead Heart
Muse * Starlight *
Oasis Lyla
OK Go Get Over It
Pete Drodge If You Don’t Love Me
Primitives, The Crash
Rancid *Ruby Soho *
Red Hot Chili Peppers *Dosed *
Schilling, Peter The Different Story
School of Fish *3 Strange Days *
She Wants Revenge Tear You Apart
She Wants Revenge These Things
Shiny Toy Guns Le Disko
Shiny Toy Guns *You Are The One *
Silversun Pickups *Lazy Eye *
Single Gun Theory From a Million Miles
Smashing Pumpkins Muzzle
Smithereens A Girl Like You
Sneaker Pimps *Six Underground *
Snow Patrol Run *
Social Distortion Bad Luck
Social Distortion Ball and Chain
Social Distortion I Was Wrong
Soup Dragons Divine Thing
Stone Roses * Ten Storey Love Song
Sweet, Matthew * Evangeline *
Sweet, Matthew Sick of Myself
Tegan and Sara *Walking With a Ghost *
The The Dogs of Lust
Third Eye Blind Motorcycle Drive By
U2 Bad
Utah Saints Something Good
Velvet Revolver Fall To Pieces
Weezer Island in the Sun
Weezer This is Such a Pity
Yorn, Pete Undercover
plus pretty much every song by The Smiths, Radiohead and The Clash
Most recently it was Put Your Records On (Corinne Bailey Rae).
Before that, Silver, Blue and Gold (Bad Company).
(I’m not going back any further - I’d be here all day typing.)
Jack Johnson’s Bubbletoes was love at first listen for me. It never fails to make me smile. I also instantly loved The Cure’s **Just Like Heaven ** and **Kiss Off ** from the Violent Femmes. So much fun to sing along to.
Akon- Don’t Matter
Killers - Read my Mind
Jimi Hendrix - Burning of the Midnight Lamp
Last year sometime, I heard The Shins’ “Caring Is Creepy” on the radio while driving, and once it was over and they didn’t immediately say who the song or artist was, I pulled the car over and called the radio station to find out what I’d been listening to.
That’s a more extreme reaction than I usually have when I fall in love with a song on first hearing, but still.
IIRC, I instantly loved Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” and KT’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” which have already been mentioned.
Another one, from a few years back: “New York” by U2 off the All That You Can’t Leave Behind album. One of my favorite U2 songs, and, for me at least, more evocative of NYC than any other song I know.
And probably “These are Days” by 10,000 Maniacs since it starts off peppy and pulls you right into it.
Most recently, “Don’t Fall In Love With a Homo” by Jonny McGovern, the Gay Pimp. Repeated plays with sing-along when it comes up on the CD, silent smirking when it shuffles up on the iPod.
Oh, and “This is How You Go-Go” by Jay*.
Two recent ones: Freewheel by Duke Special and The Bitter Song by Butterfly Boucher.
Sophtware Slump* - Grandaddy
(actually, as soon as I heard it, I knew the entire album was something special)
- title track
I’m showing my age, but the first time I heard Life in the Fast Lane and found out it was The Eagles. I was blown away.
The first time i heard Turn the Page by Bob Seger.
Please forgive my stupidity.
This is what my post above should have said:
“He’s Simple, He’s Dumb, He’s The Pilot”* - Grandaddy
(actually, as soon as I heard it, I knew the entire album was something special)
*opening track
The last song to really sweep me off my feet was “Still Waters,” by Jim White.
Here’s a YouTube video of it from the documentary the song was created for. The song gets interrupted and overridden occasionally in this video, but you can get a sense for how lush and gorgeous the song is.
I’ll only state the songs that I instantly fell in love with but still love today. There have been way too many songs that I liked at first and got sick of after the 4th or 5th listen.
Depeche Mode - Everything Counts
New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed
Pinback - Fortress
REM - Fall On Me
REM - Talk About the Passion
Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
Sufjan Stevens - Come on, Feel the Illinoise
Sufjan Stevens - The Predatory Wasp
U2 - Gloria
Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups
ditto on I Wanna Be Adored- I could listen to that 1000 times and not get tired of it!
I feel like this reply is not half hip enough for the thread, but the only time I recall loving a song at first listen was Carlos Santana and Rob Thomas’s Smooth.
Then I heard it a jillion more times and wanted to puke.
Similar genre, today’s choice is Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy by Rotersand. Talk about a badass bassline.
I was listening to the radio the other day (I listen to the pop station! Oh, the humanity! :rolleyes: ) when I heard an incredibly catchy song and fell in love immediately. It took me a week and a half to find out the song was “The Way I Are” by Timbaland. If I’d heard the title in all its ungrammatical glory before I’d heard the song, I might not have given it a chance.