motorhead's thread got me thinking

You pretty much nailed it with Smoke on the water and Sweet Home Alabama

I might add Layla to the list
And Limelight by Rush is a personal favorite

I’ve got quite a few:

Doors, Light My Fire
Cream, White Room
David Bowie, Fame
The Guess Who, American Woman
Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze
Lords of Acid, Pussy
Rolling Stones, Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Great thread, and some outstanding choices for memorable opening riffs. Some more that come to mind:

Beatles: Day Tripper
Rolling Stones: Start Me Up
Cream: Sunshine of Your Love
Blue Oyster Cult: Don't Fear the Reaper
Free: All Right Now
Eagles: Life in the Fast Lane
Steely Dan: Reelin' in the Years
Sam and Dave: Soul Man

But for sheer numbers in memorable opening riffs, you can hardly beat Creedence Clearwater Revival:

Proud Mary
Fortunate Son
Green River
Down on the Corner
Bad Moon Rising

Another one that gets your motor running
Born to be Wild
and just because Coolitas are a thing
Hotel California

The opening riff of Sweet Child O Mine by Guns N Roses is pretty iconic.

Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult; You Really Got me - The Kinks; Panic in Detroit - David Bowie; I wanna Be Sedated - Ramones; Wish you were Here - Pink Floyd; Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison; American Woman - The Guess Who; Ripple - The Grateful Dead; Tommy - The Who; Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison; Little Willy - The Sweet; The Boys are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy; Hocus Pocus - Focus. Taking Care of Business - Bachman Turner Overdrive. You keep me Hangin On - Vanilla Fudge.

Thunderstruck & You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
One - Metallica
Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana
Be All, End All - Anthrax
Sweet Dreams - Eurhythmics
How Soon Is Now - The Smiths
City Baby's Revenge - G.B.H.
Thieves - Ministry
Bust A Move - Young MC
California Love - Dr. Dre & Tupac Shakur

jane-jefferson starship
l.a. woman-doors
wild nights-van morrison
bark at the moon-ozzy osbourne
junior's farm-wings
cold sweat-thin lizzy
heartbreaker-rolling stones, led zeppelin, pat benatar
rock the casbah-clash
fire it up-black label society

Obviously, Sweet Home Alabama is super-recognizable. But Lynyrd Skynyrd had several very memorable opening riffs.Freebird, Gimme Three Steps, Tuesday’s Gone all pop right into my head. A few other bands are the same way. Somebody already pointed out CCR. GnR has several in addition to Sweet Child o’ Mine. Lots of stuff by U2, Rolling Stones, Eagles, Van Halen too. And I’m missing a lot more. I think the point us that memorable riffs and iconic songs seem to be a hallmark of great bands.

Green River - Creedence Clearwater Revival
Venus - Shocking Blue
The Width of a Circle - David Bowie

Gerry Rafferty, Baker Street

Back in Black AC/DC
Dirty deeds AC/DC
Shook me all nite long AC/D
Thunder struck AC/DC
Girls girls girls Motley Crew
Kick start my heart Motley crew
Rattle snake shake Motley vrew
Heart breaker Pat Banatar
Detroit Rock City Kiss
Good vibrations Beach Boys
And so many others I can't think of.

A lot of the greats have already been mentioned but here are a few more.

Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses
Straight Outta Compton by NWA
We Will Rock You and We are the Champions by Queen
Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Seger
Don't Stop Believin' by Journey
What was I thinkin' by Dierks Bentley
9 to 5 by Dolly Parton
Final Countdown by Europe

Funkadelic: Maggot Brain

Black Sabbath: Into the Void

Rage Against the Machine

I like Bang69's list.

Barracuda - Heart
Whole Lotta Rosie -AC/DC
Crazy Train - Ozzy

None of that rap crap?

Lose Yourself - Eminem

Just heard Hot Blooded by Foreigner come on the radio and decided it had to be included here.

Speaking of Foreigner, 'I Want to Know What Love Is' and 'Waiting for a Girl Like You'

More than a feeling by Boston

China Grove - Doobie Brothers
Money for Nothing - Dire Straits
Woodstock - CSN&Y

Right after I hit submit I thought shit, I should’ve added Lose Yourself, but my bestie wingman Gamma had my back. To add to the rock genre dominating the riffs I’d also add:

Coolio - Gangsta’s Paradise
50 Cent - In Da Club
House of Pain - Jump Around

And a rock song,
Chili Peppers- Under the Bridge

Opening notes on all of those get me hyped

Foreplay/Long time by Boston.

And I know that the Van Halen song Eruption is it’s own song but is even better as a lead in to You Really Got Me.

One of the greatest crimes is that Spotify doesn’t allow you to link songs. If your playlist has Eruption, it should always be followed by You Really Got Me. We Will Rock You followed by We Are the Champions. Heartbreaker followed by Living Loving Maid. It should be a law.

Ain't Wasting Time No More - The Allman Brothers, Baba O'Riley - The Who, Backstabbers - The O'Jay's, Dancing In The Moonlight - King Harvest, Green Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf, Lowdown - Boz Scaggs, Money - Pink Floyd, Right Place, Wrong Time - Dr. John, Taking Care of Business - Bachman Turner Overdrive, Taking It To The Streets - The Doobie Brothers, These Eyes - The Guess Who, and Young American - David Bowie.

ZZ Top's hits are all awesome riffs: Sharp Dressed Man, Got me under pressure, Legs, La Grange, Give me all your lovin

Some great mentions on here. Nice to see Thin Lizzy get a mention (thanks Skibum). I saw them back in the day in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Easily in the top 5 concerts I have been to, especially as Gary Moore was on lead guitar as well as Scott Gotham.

I’d like to add

Bad Company by Bad Company
Jane by Jefferson Starship

Hey folks I like all the music mentioned, but what I. actually talking about are the opening riffs, play Smoke on the Water, or Sweet Home Alabama, those riffs are not only unique, they are electrifying, not to take away from how great most of what y'all posted is, but aside from maybe The Joker by the Steve Miller Band, or the Jimi Hendrix version of Star Spangled Banner, they don't quite open the same way I/m trying to describe.

This is tough to choose because there are so many great opening riffs. This list is actually whittled down by about half from what I had. Tried to take out any repeats...

Stevie Wonder - Superstition
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Ted Nugent - Stranglehold
AC/DC - Givin the Dog a Bone
Volbeat - Doc Holliday
Foghat- Slow Ride
The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl
Edgar Winter - Frankenstein
Megadeth - Tornado of Souls
The Doors - Soul Kitchen
B-52's - Private Idaho
Moorhead- Suicide
Rick James - Superfreak
Led Zeppelin - Kashmir
Don Felder - Heavy Metal

Ugh... Motorhead, obviously not Moorhead.

Van Halen - Unchained

R Kelly - Thoi Thong

I’m guessing it isn’t getting played much anymore - but it’s a very identifiable start to a song.

Cecilia - Simon and Garfunkel
Peace Train - Cat Stevens

25: Funny! While I like "Smoke On The Water", the opening riff is unremarkable to me. From where I sit - Sweet Home Alabama and Brown Sugar do resonate! Perhaps that feeling is an individual thing and you've already fulfilled your list.

I do have another opening riff that has always resonated with me, but the song not as much - "Don't Wanna Fight" - Alabama Shakes

^ Ok I can respect that point.

Mississippi Queen by Mountain comes to mind along with a lot that have been mentioned here.

^ I’m a fan of that group i especially like their album Nantucket Sleighride

99.9% all good picks!

“What’s the Frequency” by REM. Really sets the tone at the opening. Wasn’t a big fan of them, but I believe this was their best song with rock and roll characteristics.

^Damn I agree, my day is ruined. Add in More than a Feeling and I wanna be sedated.

Gimme Shelter - Stones
Immigrant Song. - Led Xep

Enter the Sandman - Metallica. Wish you were here. Pink Floyd.

+1 for Give me Shelter

Kinda roundabout way to get here but Howard Stern was interviewing Lizzo and they were talking about the flute (she went to college on a flute scholarship). Anyway they talked about Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull. Iconic opening riff:

Aqualung

Great thread! I was scrolling through and saw a lot of favorites, and Mike710 finally mentioned Mississippi Queen by the amazing Leslie West and Mountain. My contribution is Stay With Me by Faces. Rod Stewart’s best era IMHO.

Finally - wld4tatas - Venus by Shocking Blue??? Are you kidding me? You are really dating yourself with that one bud!

I'll comment where i want