I am a solid fan of Johnny B. Goode’s opening lick, since it kinda transformed popular music. And Can’t You Hear Me Knocking because it is the greasiest tone and badass-est opening lick around.
I love well-done guitar riff openings - nothing special, just starting things off: Feel Your Love Tonight by Van Halen is just a great riff. Same with Sin City by AC/DC. Meat and potatoes riffs, love 'em.
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The beginning of Cold Shot, especially the Stevie Ray Vaughan version usually makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. It always makes me feel like I wish I had tuned in a few seconds before I did; like I tuned in right after the best lick in a great building intro. Even when I start it myself I feel like I am coming into something great that is already going on.
[/QUOTE]This, sooo this.
Oh, and also Gary Moore Still Got The Blues and Parisian Wakway. How could this thread go so long without Gary Moore getting a nod??
Oh, and I use Oh Well, by Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac to check out the low end response on Acoustic guitars 
Pride and Joy, and Voodoo Child, both by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Long Cool Woman, The Hollies, just because it’s a classic rock song intro of guitar, bass and drums.
I fully concur. And how about, in “Megalomania”, at the start of the second part as the cowbell is ending, the raw purity of that riff.
How is it that nobody has mentioned CHINA GROVE yet?
No AC/DC yet? are you all deranged?
Thunderstruck
Back in Black
You shook me all night long
Whole lotta Rosie
Highway to Hell
I mean, I could go on…
See my post.
Ah! yes, you snuck it in there. My faith in the dope is restored.
Still… just the one?
See post #5.
(As I’ve said before, there really ought to be a name for this phenomenon a la Gaudere’s Law, that when somebody breaks into a thread with a post starting “I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned XXX,” that XXX has, indeed, already been mentioned, and probably multiple times. 
ETA: Although Alpha Twit appears to be in the clear in this regard. So perhaps rephrase it to there being a “high probability” that XXX has been mentioned.)
Three more for your consideration.
“baby I call hell” by Deap Valley. So much sound coming from just one little lady. Plus the video is simple, informal and sexy as hell.
“Go with the flow” by QOTSA. A great video as well though you could never accuse it of subtle imagery.
“lazy eye” by Silversun Pickups. And again a damn fine video, a gentle story rather at odds with the aggression and wildness of the song
ARSE!
I wouldn’t care but I read through again just to check that I wasn’t making the same mistake again.
DOUBLE ARSE AND BALLS!
After dinner at an old friend’s house, we sat drinking wine and talked for hours… while her husband tried to master one acoustic guitar riff. So I’ve listened to the first lick from Chuck E’s In Love at least a thousand times. Still love it (the Rickie Lee Jones version, not the “Trina’s husband’s version”).
No one has yet mentioned the Beatles “I feel fine”. Was that the first intentional use of feedback?
I was just thinking “What’s that Beatles song with the feedback?”
Why don’t we call it Puly’s Law? Starting right now…
Or did someone else make that comment already?
The Kinks’ Labour of Love handles the wedding march with brutal honesty and disrespect, and the actual song follows suit in its treatment of marriage in general.
I don’t know why that riff reminds me of the Nuge’s “Dog Eat Dog”. Heh, sorry for bringing him up - making ME bring something up. Not totally similar, possibly.
Another fine Sabbath riff - Supernaut. According to wiki, big fans of the tune are Niel Young, Zappa, Bonham, and, interestingly, Beck, who considers the actual riff, itself, his alltime favourite.
I always imagined, for this riff, that Iommi was listening to some Celtic or Gaelic shanty and was like - hey, wait a minute! YYYYYEAH! Someone’s gonna appropriate something!!! (said in annoying sing-songy voice)
Lots of good choices so far. I’ll go with a little more obscure one, Freak Ya Loneliness by Bumblebeez. I wish the entire song was that opening riff and the uhh-WOOOOO-ooo’s.
Brother James - Sonic Youth. God, the whole intro is my favorite SY intro.
The Most Exalted Potentate of Love -The Cramps. Odd scale, funky way to use it.
Hortense Buttermilk/Grumbler (it’s been released under both names) By Ed Hall. Every amp I try out gets a test of that riff of that and…
20th Century Boy by T. Rex. If the Amp doesn’t sound good doing those, bleah.
Roman Bird Dog - The Melvins. To quote the promo from Boner Records: “Like watching dough rise.” Admittedly, it’s hard to distinguish guitar intro from song in that one. I personally draw the line at 7:51 when the beat picks up, and the guitar gets simpler.
And, of course, Misirlou by Dick Dale. Glissade into that open E like you fucking MEAN it, and then pepper the hell out of it (and I’m pretty sure the Cramps got that scale from here).
Heh, and a bass guitar is still a guitar. This is probably my favorite opening lick from either register (but it really combines both): Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black) By Neil Young and Crazy Horse.