"One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock,
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock,
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock rock,
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight" was the way Bill Haley kicked off "Rock Around the Clock" on the record and at the start of the '50s movie.
A lengthy mouthful, but very effective.
I went to see that movie with my schoolteacher parents, but other people were dancing in the theater aisles.
And I remember how Buddy Holly jump started his great song, "Rave On," using about 5 hiccoughing syllables to vocalize a single word: "Well."
That was shorter and pretty cool.
I've performed Van Morrison's "Brown-eyed Girl" in cover bands for decades.
Its distinctive double stopped guitar intro, with bass, organ and drum accompaniment, still ALWAYS gets people up and dancing, before I ever sing a word.
Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" had much the same effect, but we don't play that one regularly anymore.
The Eagles "Hotel California" has a well-recognized intro also.
As does Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama."
The a cappella intro to Toni Basil's "Mickey" is bad mainly because you hear that same phrase over and over and over and over as the song continues.
It's like a monotonous HS cheer that goes on and on and on until interest is lost.
Oh, wait.....
BTW, Toni and Karen Black appeared as the two New Orleans chicks in "Easy Rider."
And Phil Spector was the connection whom Peter Fonda met near LAX in that same movie's opening scene, whilst Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" blasted out on the soundtrack.
So those John Kay guitar chords for a Hoyt Axton song (he also wrote "Greenback Dollar," "The No-No Song," "Never Been to Spain" and "Joy to the World") make up another memorable intro.
And its pretty hard to beat the guitar riff that John Fogerty plays to begin "Proud Mary."
Then there's the fantastic arpeggio of instrumental notes (worthy of Mozart) which the late Ray Manzarek composed on organ to excitedly introduce, turn around and finally end the mesmerizing, languid, morphing into passionate, screaming vocal that Jim Morrison gave us on The Doors' "Light My Fire."
Gig 'em, FAST FRED '65.
Before the world wide web, village idiots usually stayed in their own village.
[This message has been edited by FAST FRED (edited 6/4/2014 12:23p).]
