You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
From that single "bong" at the start, you know exactly what's coming next.
It's Christmas so we have to give honourable mention to The Great Escape which can earworm a room full of men in only two notes.
What else gives itself away with that very first sound?
She sells sanctuary
Teletubbies theme
Simple minds - don’t you forget about me. The opening snare flam is enough.
Killer Queen
Footloose
Mission Impossible theme tune
Ice T Lethal Weapon
There is a tangible air of disappointment at the start of every Ed Sheeran song. Does that count?
Last Christmas 🙂
I recognised 'always' by Bon Jovi the other day from the first two drum beats on the intro... I probably shouldn't admit that, hahah!
Greenday Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Peaches by the Stranglers
Breath by the Prodigy
Dr Feelgood by Mötley Crue
Careful with that Mic by Clutch
Nice Weathe for Ducks by Lemon Jelly.
All tracks where you know exactly where you are within about 3 or 4 seconds.
pretty vacant - sex pistols
the cutter - echo and the bunnymen
5 minutes - stranglers
Motorheads Ace of spades
Beethoven's fifth
dun dun de-dun dun, dun-dun dun-dun…
And that Rover SD1 in the video. human League
Terminator is a good shout.
When cooking, we tend to fall into a Terminator sound trap when tapping the spoon on the edge of the saucepan
The Chain (aka the F1 theme tune).
Loads of metal tracks spring to mind but for not needing to get past the first note/sound.
Wherever I may roam by Metallica
I wasn't meant to feel this/Asleep at the wheel by Suicidal Tendencies.
Them Bones by Alice in Chains
The main Star Wars theme is probably another and more mainstream one.
That one live version of Fear Of The Dark by Iron Maiden.
I mean OK, it literally starts with Bruce Dickinson going FEAH! OV! THU! DAAAAAARK! which is a clue. But you know instantly "oh it's that one live version"
I have nothing to add except The Cutter ( mentioned above) is one of my favourite songs evahhh and it rarely gets mentioned
….goes off screaming. “Couldn’t cut the mustaaaaaaard”
As you were
There’s quite a few that I can recognise pretty quickly, but only if I hear them, I can’t think of them off the top of my head. [img] 
[/img]
Beethoven’s fifth
I thought that but figured you would the first three notes to recognise (some may need 4).
This does it for me.
Can’t believe nobody has this yet
Can't believe nobody has this yet
Oh and:
I'm a Believer - The Monkees
House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals
Two Cream ones spring to mind - White Room and Sunshine of your Love.
White Stripes, 7 Nation Army
what a tune.
I'd have to say Rappers Delight
The Link that Winston posted had an add for EE featuring Out of Space by Prodigy which would fall into this category (along with a bunch of their other ones)
The Chain (aka the F1 theme tune).
Interesting. I always get the F1 theme, but it takes me a while to get The Chain, the F1 theme is taken from the middle of the song, one of very few I can think of where the middle bit is the most famous.
.
Anyway, Papa Roach - Last Resort
Thin Lizzy - The boys are back in town.
Unbelievable - EMF
Honky Tonk Women - Rolling Stones
Was also thinking Walk of Life by Dire Straits, but it does take longer than I thought to get to the whistling bit.
Interesting. I always get the F1 theme, but it takes me a while to get The Chain, the F1 theme is taken from the middle of the song, one of very few I can think of where the middle bit is the most famous.
I actually meant the F1 theme bit (there's another bit of music now that comes up if you just search F1 theme). I had to Google what the underlying track was to distinguish it from the Brian Tyler one, which is also quite identifiable.
easily
Free MemberBeethoven’s fifth
In the same vein, Sibelius's Finlandia. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaa buh. If it's cultured but makes you feel like you'll get et by a shark, it's Finlandia.
Smells Like Teen Spirit
My Girlfriends Girlfriend - Type O Negative
Worked really well as ring tone in mobile phones back in the day, of course I used this one for personal ring tone for my Mrs. My son was toddler at time and used to recognize it too, ”Mom is calling”.
I find this fascinating - beyond the actual question, which I'll come back to in a minute. That a standard contemporary music band is mainly guitar, bass, drums and a voice. Maybe keyboards, maybe more than 1 guitar. And we have basically the pentatonic scale, and a series of chord types (major, minor, dim, etc.) And pretty much everything uses that formula. And yet people can write new tunes all the time, that are different and yet distinctive, even without the voice. You can hear a tune you'd never heard before and think Smiths, or Arctic Monkeys, or whatever....
On the original question. How can one chord on a guitar instantly be identified, or one drum beat?
Boys Don't Cry - The Cure
Hard Days Night - Beatles
How Soon is Now - Smiths (bit of a cheat because of the layered reverb, but I saw an interview with Marr where he just played the chord without the effects and it's still HSIN)
Or E minor Maj7 (not a start to a tune but instantly recognisable -I can't find a video that doesn't name it but grab a guitar and play it)
Or drums - Light My Fire / Doors, that one drum hit.
Hell's Bells - AC/DC
Golden Brown – The Stranglers
Echo Beach – Martha and the Muffins
Angelic Upstarts - Police Oppression
Police car siren starts it, but that opening riff!
The car door in Autobahn