For every masterful debut that expertly expresses a band’s style there’s another debut that offers up bad songs with poorly thought-out musical decisions. Other debut albums are maddeningly inconsistent and, while they might be home to a good song here or there, they don’t deliver the goods the way other future albums in an artist’s discography do.
However, some debut albums are almost perfect, and the opening songs on those albums are automatic classics that perfectly encapsulate a group or artist – or at least provide a template for triumphs that may await the group or artist in the future.
With so many amazing opening songs from debut albums, there was always the possibility that some songs would get forgotten along the way. This list represents the 11 best songs that were forgotten in the creation of the other lists in this series.
These 11 tracks represent a terrific cross-section of opening songs from debut albums
Note: This list does not include EPs or first singles, as it is strictly limited to the first song featured on the track list of the group or artist’s debut album – simple as that. As such, this list also doesn’t count first tracks on a group or artist’s first “major label” album, discounting their “independent” releases.
“School Days” – Chuck Berry – After School Session (1957)
If there’s one thing Chuck Berry knew, it was how to write a terrific song with as few chords as possible. As one of the progenitors of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s, Berry was a master of concise songwriting, and he also happened to be a storyteller par excellence. Of course, the legendary singer and guitarist did reuse his melodies and chord sequences liberally, but when you have something as catchy as this opening song from his first album, you can’t really blame him for reusing it multiple times throughout his career!
“I Only Want To Be With You” – Dusty Springfield – Stay Awhile - I Only Want to Be With You (1964)
Despite not having the most engaging title of all time, English chanteuse Dusty Springfield’s international debut album featured a bevy of highlight tracks, perhaps none more impressive than “I Only Want To Be With You,” a stone-cold classic love song delivered with Springfield’s signature sultry, yearning vocals. The gifted Springfield would cover deeper material later on, but this album serves as a terrific example of the “Wall of Sound” production style – likely the best example of that production method that the U.K. ever produced.
“Time Will Show The Wiser” – Fairport Convention – Fairport Convention (1968)
While legendary folk singer Sandy Denny didn’t join the group until its next album What We Did On Our Holidays, British folk-rock group Fairport Convention’s first album delivers all of the sparkling vocal harmonies and folky covers, plus Richard Thompson’s terrific guitar work, on its first album that the group would continue to produce over the course of a multi-decade career. The group’s first track from their debut album is a ripper and certainly showcases the group in more of a straight-up “rock” mood than a “folk-rock” one.
“Father Cannot Yell” – Can – Monster Movie (1969)
While Krautrock pioneers Can would produce more exciting material once lead singer Damo Suzuki took over vocal duties, the group’s debut album still provides a thrilling excursion into the rhythmic experiments and freeform improvisation that the group would take in striking new directions over the course of their early 1970s albums.
“Father Cannot Yell,” their first track from debut album Monster Movie sets the table for a number of trademark elements of the group’s sound: inscrutable lyrics, steady and intriguing bass lines from founder Holger Czukay, as well as singular jazzy and improvisational style that no other band has ever approached since.
“It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll)” – AC/DC – T.N.T. (1975) or High Voltage (1976)
You’ll notice that two albums are listed here, but that is mostly for the sake of semantics – AC/DC’s opening track from their debut album was the same for both their international release and their local Australian debut: the iconic “It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘N’ Roll).”
Brought back to the limelight by the students at the School of Rock with help from Jack Black in the same film, this opener delivers all of the bravado, rugged guitar riffing, and inimitable vocal stylings that the Bon Scott era of AC/DC is known for. Legendary.
“Slash ‘n’ Burn” – Manic Street Preachers – Generation Terrorists (1992)
The Manic Street Preachers are among the most interesting music groups of all time. Their career has lasted far longer than any critic – or likely the band themselves – would have ever expected, and the group has a litany of classic songs and albums to their name. The opening song from their debut album is not necessarily one of those classics.
The track does introduce the band’s sloganeering lyrics (which have been ratcheted way down over the years), the incredible vocal and guitar talents of frontman James Dean Bradfield as well as a general zeal for music that is frankly contagious. An auspicious opening track for one of the best bands ever.
“Mysterons” – Portishead – Dummy (1994)
Trip-hop was a short-lived “genre” of music in the U.K. (and a term that the artists involved in utterly despised) that included such groups as Massive Attack, Groove Armada, DJ Shadow, and Portishead – who delivered the magnum opus of the genre with 1994’s Dummy. A thrilling, sprawling album that’s equal parts menacing and sensual, Dummy delivers the goods right away on its first track, “Mysterons,” which features the group’s signature sampling and the dramatic, stark vocal stylings of Beth Gibbons. Spooky, sparkling stuff.
“Somewhere Only We Know” – Keane – Hopes & Fears (2004)
A truly transcendent achievement from England’s Keane, and if this was the only song the group ever recorded and produced, they would still be lauded as a notable group from the 2000s. Luckily for us, however, the band has continued to write and record powerfully emotional and heartfelt tracks for the better part of 20 years, but perhaps they concisely captured everything they stood for with the opening track from their 2004 debut album Hopes & Fears.
Recently rediscovered by a new generation thanks to usage in viral TikTok videos, “Somewhere Only We Know” is one of the best songs of the 2000s – and easily one of the best opening tracks on a debut album ever.
“Holding Someone’s Hair Back” – Circa Survive – Juturna (2005)
The most striking element of emo/metal/prog group Circa Survive’s songs are surely the ultra-high-pitched vocals of frontman Anthony Green, but there’s more to the group than that. Green’s obtuse lyrics and the spirited rhythm section make sure that the band’s songs remain thrilling throughout. The group’s opening track from its debut album showcases all of those notable elements perfectly – all tucked into a tricky time signature alongside some beefy guitar riffing. An exciting start for a supremely underrated band.
“I Want You Now” – The Feeling – Twelve Stops and Home (2006)
The Feeling’s debut album Twelve Stops and Home was marred by heavy-handed record label meddling, which features an entirely different track list depending on if you have the original U.K. or U.S. release – likely because the band’s label believed U.S. listeners wouldn’t “get” the group.
Of course, that is asinine, and, as such, the original English version of this album is the far superior choice, as this was the way the group originally intended for listeners to hear the album. That album’s terrific pacing is littered with standout tracks, but opener “I Want You Now” delivers terrific hook-laden power pop right out of the gate. A supremely underrated album let down by record label meddling.
“Boys” – Sky Ferreira – Night Time, My Time (2013)
Sky Ferreira is among the most intriguing talents to debut in the 2010s. The opening track from her debut album, which sounds like an industrial version of a 1950s girl group song or a woman-fronted Jesus and Mary Chain, is unlike anything else released before or since. Somehow, her long-gestating second album, Masochism, has still not been released despite her debut album being over 10 years old – due to (primarily) record label meddling. A standout track that introduced a deeply underrated and somewhat forgotten singer from the 2010s.