Song that blew you away on first hearing it

Nailz

Atmosphere - Joy Division

Alanstrainor

Mr Stevie Ray Vaughan Live in Montreux 1982.
Dirty Pool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tih3scxV1OQ

the_syco

Basket Case by Green Day. Heard it before I became a metal head. It was one of the songs that made me see the light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKOwGffqlbM

rachelmcg1989

wow theres alot

ben harper - most of his songs really, but i loved diamonds on the inside from the second the song began.

bjork - joga

brand new - fork and knife, jesus christ and sic transit gloria

and pretty much from the first time i heard incubus, i fell in love, but wish you were here was the first song i heard of theirs, so thats the song that got me obsessed with them i guess

the smiths - hand in glove

kanye west - flashing lights

k-os - sunday morning

jeff buckley - grace and lover you should have come over

jimi hendrix - all along the watchtower

muse- stockholm syndrome

i definitly missing tonnes, but their the main i guess

Steve_o

Tom Waits - Martha
Tom Waits - Tom Trauberts Blues
Bob Dylan - Girl of the North Country
Damien Rice - La Professor et la Fille Danse
Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
The Beatles - Hey Jude

and many many more.

markesmith

Frank Grimes wrote: »

Venus in Furs by the Velvet Underground, was about 14 when I heard it first (in '93, around the time they reformed I think).
I'd never heard anything like it before, still have never really had the same experience listening to a song since!

I would second that, got into 'em around the same time. Such a great great song, and 'Heard Her Call My Name' blew me away too.

Being original, Elvis Costello's 'I Want You' really hit me. So raw and personal.

Recently? 'Get Innocuous' by LCD, 'I Turn My Camera On' by Spoon, and the long long intro to 'I Will Possess Your Heart' by Death Cab for Cutie.

niallon

Martha - Tom Waits
Somebody Told Me - The Killers (Bit of a new and obvious choice but I just really didn't think it could ever be possible to pack that much energy into a song and keep it going start to finish!)
The River - The Boss (It was just so haunting)
Life On Mars? - Bowie
With Or Without You - U2 (Mesmerising)

Starmix

The Prayer - Bloc Party
Read my Mind - the Killers
Square One - Coldplay
The Ground beneath her Feet - U2
Walk on - U2
Starlight - Muse
Rebellion - Arcade Fire
I drove all night - Roy Orbison


I could go on.....and on and on......

cannonball

Buggles - Video killed the radio star
Pavement - Cut your Hair
Beck - Loser
Grandaddy - Am180
Yo la tengo - The crying of lot G
The National - Mistaken for Strangers
MGMT - Time to Pretend/Kids

To name but a few.

lordgoat

Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Elliott Smith - Figure 8, whole album is stunning

Milky Joe

ill probably think of loads more as soon as i post this:) but heres a couple that spring to mind
disarm-smashing pumpkins
fake plastic trees-radiohead
live version at abbey road of rootless tree by damien rice-way better than the album version!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlnpedLeGbo

lanod2407

Miss Sarajevo - U2 & Pavarotti ............ blew me away the moment Pav opened his mouth!

rachelmcg1989

niallon wrote: »

The River - The Boss (It was just so haunting)

oooooh great choice, prob my fave song of his!

rebeldiamond

Disarm- The Smashing Pumpkins
Read My Mind- The Killers
Atmosphere- Joy Division
My Immortal- Evanescence
Ashes to Ashes- David Bowie
Hymn for Her- The 4 of Us (my very guilty pleasure! but a great song also!)

Julesie

Most recent one for me (and it was somewhat a combo of video and music) was MGMT - Time to Pretend. I found myself entranced staring at the TV taking in the song.

Doesn't happen very often to me I guess the last time before that would be an old Foo Fighters song Aurora. Still one of my favourites to this day.

hussey

Oasis - Don't go away, rocking chair
Damien Rice - Rat within the grain, lonely soldier
Beatles - A day in the life/in my life

Aspiration

The Widow by The Mars Volta. I was into a totally different type of music at the time but that song definitely blew me away.

Twee.

Aspiration wrote: »

The Widow by The Mars Volta. I was into a totally different type of music at the time but that song definitely blew me away.

Now there's a band I haven't listened to in ages! I'm so lazy, got a laptop last November and still have only moved artists A-L over!

Penny For A Thought by Saul Williams just fascinated me. Listened to it countless times.

Aspiration

Twee. wrote: »

Now there's a band I haven't listened to in ages! I'm so lazy, got a laptop last November and still have only moved artists A-L over!

Penny For A Thought by Saul Williams just fascinated me. Listened to it countless times.

Love The Mars Volta- i think they may be the band that overturned my choice of music at the time! Move the rest of your music over and start listening to them again!!

The Widow is amazing... I think the story behind it is alot to do with why I love it so much too.

Kirnsy

i dont know if anyone's mentioned it

Band of horses - No one's gonna love you

MAKE MY DAY

Just a few and deffo not a full list

Roberta Flack - First time ever I saw your face
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Tori Amos - Professional Widow
Tori Amos - Cornflake Girl
Chris Isaak - Wicked Game
Amos Lee - Colors
Queen - These are the days of our lives
Cardigans - Erase/Rewind
James Blunt - No Bravery
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris

jf852003

M83-Kim & Jessie

I was walking around HMV last week and i heard this song. Sounded like something that had leapt from the 1980's. A cross between New Order and Depeche Mode. I was so intrigued by the song that i asked one of the girls there who it was. I bough the album on the basis of that song and it is a fantastic listen. Best thing i've heard in a long while

J.S. Pill

Grace Jones - Slave to the rhythm

Jim

Interpol - Obstacle 1
Al Stewart - Roads To Moscow

Hal1

Royskopp - Eple
Arcade Fire - Rebellion, The Well and the Lighthouse
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Coldplay - Got Put A Smile Upon Your Face
Massive Attack - Unfinished Symphony
The Stone Roses - I want to be Adored
Moby - Porcelain
Doves - Pounding
Guns 'N Roses - November Rain
Foo Fighters - Everlong
Jimi Hendrix - Hey Joe
Stone Temple Pilots - Plush
Alice In Chains - Would
Pearl Jam - Black
Megadeth - Lucretia, My Last Words
AC/DC - Hellsbells, Back In Black
Metallica - Fade To Black, Crepping Death, Master of Puppets

Too many to list.

Tommy the Cat

Trampled Under Foot - Led Zeppelin
Pali Gap - Hendrixs

Peter Gabriel and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Signal to noise

Got talked into seeing Peter Gabriel live,wasnt expecting much to be honest,heard this and was completely blown away..such a beautiful,haunting song

Never really had the same experience listening to a song for the first time,since

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WC-5VFcliE

Reganio 2

A lot of Bloc Party songs when I first heard them blew me away, especially Hunting for Witches amazing song.

scargill

driving across the bog going to meet a friend - sun is blazing. this song came on the radio of my Peugeot 106. (its 1995)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8paAUN6lC3I

i fcking love this song.

i heard it and said.... "wow. who are these ?" dave fanning said "cardigans"

scargill

hussey wrote: »

Beatles - A day in the life

its kind of lazy saying this is the best song ever, but when you look around there are none better !!

Scubadevils

A few more...

Tindersticks
- Tiny Tears
- Dying Slowly
- A Night In
(this is the track that introduced me to Tindersticks, I heard it on a mix CD while driving and it completely blew me away, played it several times in a row)

The Mamas & The Papas
- California Dreamin'
- Twelve Thirty
- Straight Shooter
& many more, these are a new/old obsession for me. Love them.

Gas - Nah Und Fern (actually 4 full CD's of dub techno and ambient bliss.)
http://www.discogs.com/release/1363736

Harmonia Live 1974 - the full album, can't pick one track from it...
http://www.discogs.com/release/1143628

Jeffreym

'City of Blinding Lights' by U2

I remember that was the first song i heard from HTDAAB, and it blew me away. Probably one of the best songs Bono has ever written.

I remember the lyrics 'Oh you look so beautiful...tonight...in the City of Blinding Lights' sticking in my head for weeks afterwards.

Brilliant track.

irish_bob

Jeffreym wrote: »

'City of Blinding Lights' by U2

I remember that was the first song i heard from HTDAAB, and it blew me away. Probably one of the best songs Bono has ever written.

I remember the lyrics 'Oh you look so beautiful...tonight...in the City of Blinding Lights' sticking in my head for weeks afterwards.

Brilliant track.

hate that song

the last song i like by u2 was from the album zooropa

love there early stuff and still love them as a live band

kwestfan08

Guns N Roses - Welcome to the Jungle
Foo Fighters - The Pretender
Jay-Z - Dirt off your Shoulder
Kanye West - Diamonds From Sierra Leone
Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm

JerryHandbag

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
The Cure - Disintegration
Arcade Fire - Power Out/Nieghborhood No 4

cant think of any more cos it usually takes a few listens before i declare a song legendary

Max_Damage

Best songs ever...

Dire Straits - Telegraph Road
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
Fear Factory - Zero Signal
Metallica - For Whom The Bells Toll
George Thorogood - I Drink Alone (:D)

There is more, just can't think of them right now.

gustavo

Johnny Cash - The Mercy Seat
Strokes - Hard To Explain
Hives - Hate to Say I told you So
White Stripes - Hotel Yorba
Arcade Fire - Intervention

Ghost Girl

Believe it or not, Shayne Ward on X Factor the night he sang "some where over the rainbow" for the first time, absolutely blew me away, especially the ending, his take on it was brilliant, i then realised he had talent. What a vocal range....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNRQwaBeA4E

Also Rhydian on the X Factor singing "phantom of the opera" came a close second.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8-krRuQD94

Latchy

This from Ultravox made my hair stand up on first hearing it and one reason i went along to see them when they played dublin back in 80s

fitz0

New Slang - The Shins
Erie Cnal - Bruce Springsteen
Telegraph Road - Dire Straits
Hurt - Johnny Cash

Theres probably more but cant think of them now

mollydolly271

JOHNNY CASH-HURT
GARTH BROOKS-UNANSWERED PRAYERS
TAKE THAT-NOBODY ELSE

Joe_Dull

basquille wrote: »

Imogen Heap "Hide And Seek"

+1

Amazing haunting song - unlike anything I've heard before or since

Howard the Duck

The Cure "Catch"
Tindersticks "Travel light"
Jeffrey Lewis "The chelsea hotel and oral sex song"
Pixies "Gigantic"

entropi

Can only add from my 3 favourite acts:

Muse - Starlight, Bliss, Hysteria

Daft Punk - One More Time, Digital Love, Harder Better Faster Stronger

Eminem - Mockingbird, Marshall Mathers, Lose Yourself, The Way I Am

guitarsongs

Totally showin' me age here, and it's not even my typical musical style, but "If you want me to stay" by Sly and the Family Stone blew me away when I first heard it, the funkiest song ever.

30 years on, it featured in an ad recently, can't remember for what?

PJ

Ziggy_1972

But not for the reasons you might think.;)

Nolanger

Here's one from a few month's back - didn't get much radio play because it's depressing but I love it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbL9Vsobx8I

tman

"Laurie Anderson - O Superman"

Absolutely amazing... My dad used to play this quite a bit when I was younger, but I rediscovered it a couple of years ago and was totally blown away

Green Hornet

Run - Snow Patrol
Snow - JJ72

Nailz

Ceremony - Joy Division/New Order