You can’t beat a great intro to a song. The second it starts, you’re gone, solid gone to (mis)quote Baloo in Jungle Book. And if it’s anything other than a ballad, you just can’t sit still, you move around, you shake your head, your shoulders, your hips. You embarrass yourself, your partners, your kids. your friends. But it’s such a great feeling you just don’t care. If it’s a ballad, a silly, trance like look comes over your face, maybe a tear in the eye–it just hits the emotions dead centre.
For the former, how about “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” by The Hollies, or Baba O’Reilly by The Who or Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye, Gimme Shelter by The Stones, She Shook Me All Night Long or Back in Black by AC/DC, When Doves Cry by Prince, Jump by Van Halen, Nutbush City Limits by Ike and Tina Turner.
For the latter how about Feeling Good by Nina Simone, a superb a capella vocal intro, and when the orchestra comes in you’re gone. Talking of orchestras, the intro to No Regrets by the Walker Brothers has always been one of my favourites, and the song is just heart breakingly lovely. From the hippy era the intro to Scott MacKenzie’s San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) still takes those of us of a certain generation right back to that West Coast utopian dream. Avalon by Roxy Music shows Bryan Ferry’s usual care and attention to arranging and producing on yet another of my favourite songs. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard the opening piano chords of Dance with My Father by Luther Vandross I had to stop my car I was so emotionally moved. When his beautiful voice comes in (“Back when I was a child”) it’s pure magic. Songs don’t get much better than this.
To me, what makes some of these intros so great is the time and effort gone into making them so good. Take “Under Pressure” as an example. Firstly there’s John Deacon’s fantastic bass riff, and truthfully that would have been good enough on its own. But no, they obviously decided to do more, despite inner voices screaming, leave it at that, keep it simple. So Roger Taylor hits a cymbal first, then the bass riff, then the hand claps then the piano chords, then Brian May plays a guitar figure and finally Freddie starts to scat sing, before him and David Bowie sing “Pressure”in unison. Brilliant.