How much do you still like the first song you liked from your favorite bands?

[MirrorMask]

Potentially interesting discussion... they say you never forget your first love, is it true also in music? when you discover a band or artist and they become one of your favorite artists, how much the song that was the gateway to said band or artist still holds on against the rest of the catalogue? is it true that nostalgia plays a factor and that you'll always be fond of the first song you loved from a band, or maybe once you discover the whole discography more often than not you realize that that "first song", after all, was nothing special?

There are some cases with me where the "first song" definitively ranks high. I'll always say that Iron Maiden is my favorite band, and while it's not the first song I heard, my clear favorite of the bunch of songs I heard first on a cassette made by a classmate was Revelations, and to this day I always loved the song and enjoyed immensely to hear it live, it will always have a special place in my heart.

With our own DT, after I was being lukewarm to several songs my cousin was sticking at the end of cassette tapes as filler, I finally clicked with The Mirror, and to this day it's still one of my favorite DT song. Not in my top 3, that would incliude A Change of Seasons, Metropolis and Voices, but The Mirror is definitively my favorite heavy song from them, and once again the only two occasions I heard it live I was over the moon.

I also discovered Metallica with a cassette compilation, my favortite of the early batch was Creeping Death and sure enough, to this day that's the answer to the "what's your favorite Metallica song" question.

I can't think of songs that I dearly loved from my favorite bands and that now make me go "eh, after all, now that I know the whole history of the. band, that song was pretty meh", so generally for me the "you never forget your first love" motto definitively applies in music. What about you?

[wolfking]

Iron Maiden was my first intro to classic metal besides Metallica.  Aces High was the first song I heard and it changed my life.  Still a top 3 Maiden song for me.  Has never gotten old.

[Zantera]

First band that got me into music was Linkin Park. Hearing Hybrid Theory when I was 9 blew me away and they became my favorite band but they were also the band that got me interested in music to collect and own myself. I think towards the latter teenage years I had a few years between maybe 2009-2012 or so where I didn't really listen to them much, I guess you can call it the teenage rebellion phase of being 'too good' for the things I liked when I was younger, so it kinda fell by the side. But then a few years later I kinda got back into them and got caught up on the albums I had missed and as of today I still listen to them fairly frequently (like a few album spins in a month) and I do very much still enjoy their first album - even though I understand people saying it's a product of its time.

[lonestar]

Good one... I'll list them in chronological order...

Yes- Roundabout- Don't listen to it much, but every time I do, it still gets me rocking.

The Who- Baba O'Riley- Recognize it as a classic, but after 40+ years, it's overplayed in my life.

Rush- Tom Sawyer- See Baba O'Riley

Triumph- Magic Power- Still gets me in the feels, every fucking time.

Marillion- Assasing- Other than Clutching at Straws, I don't go to Fish era stuff too much anymore, once CaS really dug into me, the rest seemed....unrefined...if that makes any sense. Even lyrically, Fish just seemed to be too flamboyant and trying to hard whereas in CaS he was just fucking perfect. I'm sure I could still enjoy it, but I just don't have an urge to go there anymore.

IQ- Falling Apart at the Seams- Yup, my IQ introduction was a Menel era album. Once I discovered the Nichols stuff, I rarely went back to it with the exception of Common Ground.

DT- Pull Me Under- Kind of the same situation as Yes and The Who...about two weeks ago I gave I&W a spin on the drive home from work for the first time in ages, and all of it aged so well for me. It's a brilliant fucking album still, and reminded me why I love the band so damn much.

[Cool Chris]

Pull Me Under got me in to DT, and down the road of progressive metal. I still love it but don't listen to it often.

It's hard to think back to my other favorite bands, like Maiden and Floyd, and what the first song from those bands was that I heard. I think my first exposure to those bands was via albums anyway, so pinpointing it to a song is more difficult.

[Zook]

I have many favorite Dream Theater songs, but Surrounded has been my number one since I first heard it in 2006.

My first Iced Earth song was Declaration Day. Good song, but probably wouldn't rank the top 20.

My first Barlow IE song was Watching Over Me. I didn't like it at first. I didn't like Barlow at first. I can take it or leave it. Good song. Not a fave.

2004 to 2006 was massive in discovering new music. Bands like Symphony X, Nightwish and Kamelot had several mp3s you could download for free off their website, so I couldn't tell you which song I heard first from them... Except for Kamelot. I just remembered as I'm typing this that Forever was the first song I heard from Kamelot, by accident browsing MySpace. Some random person had it as their profile song. I think it might still be my favorite.

The first Iron Maiden song I think I heard was Where Eagles Dare due to Fozzy covering it. I still like Fozzy's version more. Not a big fan of the original at all. Again, Fozzy did it better. Chris Jericho doesn't compare to Bruce, but as a whole band, Fozzy's cover sounds better to me.

[TheCountOfNYC]

The first Metallica song I remember hearing was Master of Puppets when I was three years old, and it has held the number one spot for my favorite Metallica song ever since.

The first Dream Theater song I heard was Panic Attack when I got Rock Band 2 back in 2008, and it still sits in my top 10 holding strong at number 8.

The first Avenged Sevenfold song I heard was Beast and the Harlot playing Guitar Hero II in 2006, but it’s nowhere near my top 10.

[Pettor]

The ones I can remember:

Dream Theater - The Glass Prison
Do I even have to explain how awesome this track still is?

Michael Jackson - They Don't Care About Us
Love it. It's really emotional but still strong and powerful. The "but if Martin Luther was living" and "in a school with a bad name" parts gets me everytime. Michael delivers an extremely strong vocal performance on this one.

Toto - Hold the Line
Don't listen to it as often and other Toto songs are far superior for me now when I know the band discography. Still like it however. Catchy.

Meat Loaf - Dead Ringer For Love
Haha it was a Swedish tv show where people dress up and sing other artists song where I saw this. I really loved it and been a huge Meat Loaf fan since. Not my favorite by a long shot but it's fun, well executed and usually part of my best of Meat Loaf playlist 😁

Haha found the TV performance:
https://youtu.be/xnvfeip_Dw4

Queen - I Want it All
Still going really strong. I usually tend to feel that simple rock bangers gets old but this one is still fantastic. Powerful, catch and Freddie is always so good.

[WildRanger]

Rush - Freewill
Loved it the first time I heard it and I still love it today no less. Definitely among my top 10 Rush songs.

Dream Theater - Pull me Under
Not among my favorite DT songs but I still like it quite a lot.

Iron Maiden - Run to the Hills
I liked it the first time I heard it but today it hasn't aged so well for me. Today I find it to be average at best and the chorus is kinda lame.

[MirrorMask]

Meat Loaf - Dead Ringer For Love
Haha it was a Swedish tv show where people dress up and sing other artists song where I saw this. I really loved it and been a huge Meat Loaf fan since. Not my favorite by a long shot but it's fun, well executed and usually part of my best of Meat Loaf playlist 😁

Haha found the TV performance:
https://youtu.be/xnvfeip_Dw4

So they're a dead ringer for Meat Loaf and Cher while they're singing Dead Ringer for Love? Dead Ringerception 

(btw, the original video is one of the most gloriously cheesy and bonkers videos of that era  )

[Revenge319]

I remember listening to Metropolis Part 1 non-stop when I first discovered it. I loved that song back then, and while I don't love it as much now (I think I just listened to it way too much back then), it's still a really great song.  It is also a very important song for me, too; without listening to this song, I probably never would've discovered any of the stuff I listen to today.

Arriving Somewhere But Not Here from Porcupine Tree was a song I really enjoyed when I first heard it, and it's grown on me more ever since. Easily one of PT's best songs.

Duel With the Devil from Transatlantic was love at first listen. What a masterpiece. That's all I can say regarding that song.

[425]

Very interesting topic! One I could say more or less about depending on how expansive a definition of "your favorite bands" I take.

I'll start with Iron Maiden, which is the band that made me a serious music listener and is still one of my favorites today. I don't know what song I heard from them first, but I believe it was one of Brave New World, The Clansman or When the Wild Wind Blows. The latter two are songs I like a lot, but rank in like the #20-#40 range on the strength of the overall IM discography. Brave New World is a song I like, but don't have near my IM top 50 because I find it too repetitive.

I am really hazy on what the first Metallica song I heard was. If I had to make a bet, I'd put my money on Welcome Home (Sanitarium), which is not really a favorite of mine anymore. I think it's solid, but it's not one I return to at all unless I'm listening to Master of Puppets, which I rarely do (not my favorite Metallica album).

The first song I heard from Dream Theater was either Pull Me Under or As I Am. These are both songs I like a lot, but wouldn't put among my very favorites by the band. Of the two, I like Pull Me Under better, because it just seems to have so much going on that flows so well together. But I always like As I Am better than I remember every time I listen to it.

Nemo was the first song I heard by Nightwish. I like it, but it's far from the top of my list for the band. I think they have a lot of better songs even in the radio-single category.

All of the Above was the first song I heard by Transatlantic, and it's still perhaps my favorite song by the band and absolutely the model for a 25-30 minute epic in my opinion.

I don't remember what Kamelot song I heard first, because back when I listened to "Dream Theater Radio" on Pandora at a summer job, I was served a lot of songs from The Black Halo. That album has become one of my favorites of all time, though, and so whatever song I heard first, it's safe to say I still like it a lot. The songs that actually made me a serious listener of the band were Memento Mori (h/t Cyril) and Fallen Star (h/t Evermind). The former is probably my favorite by the band and one of the songs that can reliably make me cry, so there's that. The latter is one I like a lot when I listen to it, but don't come back to that often.

I could do more bands, and might later, but that seems good for now.

[emtee]

Doors. Riders On The Storm, on my uncle's hi-fi headphones. Around 10 yrs old. Blew me away and changed my life forever. Song still gives me chills. The power of that one song and that moment in time astounds me when I think about it.

[DoctorAction]

Random first songs that come to mind:

Zep - Immigrant Song
Maiden - Phantom
Rush - Finding My Way
Pearl Jam - Alive
Go West - We Close Our Eyes
Aha - Take On Me
Anthrax -. AIR
Devin -. The Fluke

I can't think of one I don't still love

[Peter Mc]

Dream Theater - Pull Me Under - still a great song.
Bon Jovi - Livin On A Prayer - still a great song
Guns N’ Roses - Paradise City - still a great song
Queen - One Vision - still a great song
Dire Straits - Walk Of Life - I actively dislike it now.
Joe Satriani - Big Bad Moon - still love it
Rush - Spirit Of Radio - still love it.
Faith No More - Epic - still love it
Journey - Separate Ways - still love it
Radiohead - Creep - still love it
Unleash The Archers - Cleanse The Bloodlines - still love it

Most other bands I just bought my first album of theirs without hearing a note so there wasn’t really a gateway song.  I just liked the band name or the album title or album cover or based on a good review.

[KevShmev]

Hmmm...

Tom Sawyer by Rush - still love it, and still a borderline top 10 Rush tune for me no matter how many times I hear it.

Blackest Eyes by Porcupine Tree - still like it a lot, but it has never been one of my favorites, by the band or even from In Absentia (which says more about how great both the band and album were when a song this good doesn't rate high for me).

Learning to Fly by Pink Floyd - not one of my favorites, but still love it nonetheless.

Pull Me Under by Dream Theater - still a great song, but like the last few above, doesn't rate as one of my favorites due to overall strength of their catalogue.

Truth (Infinity) by Devin Townsend - still a top 5 Devin song in my book (the original from Infinity).

Garden of Dreams suite by The Flower Kings - I guess Dawn would be the first song by the band since it is track 1 of the suite.  18 songs, but as a whole, the suite is still my overall favorite piece of music by the band.

New Year's Day by U2 - unless one of their early songs was played on MTV and I do not remember seeing it, this was the first thing I heard by the band. Still like it a lot, but I rarely revisit it anymore. 

[Anguyen92]

The first song I may have ever heard from Alter Bridge would have been Metalingus (due to me watching WWE frequently and that being Edge's theme song).  That stated, the first song from them I really took notice of them was Open Your Eyes and I think, 17 years later after that song was released and 14 years later after I first heard of it from a fanmade WWE highlight video, it's still a great song.  It may not have aged as well with the rest of their catalog since they were still in a post-grunge phase before they had to move on from that "trend," but it's still a great song from start to finish and it's still a great song to be one of the last songs to play in their live shows.

Other songs.  Breaking Benjamin - Until The End.  Not quite one of my favorites, but it's still an all right song.  The Diary of Jane is naturally the song from them to take notice.

Sixx: A.M. - Lies of the Beautiful People.  Again, like Breaking Benjamin, not really a favorite, but still an all right song, but their most-well song was Life is Beautiful and it's still a great song to this day.

Aimer - Brave Shine.  Heard it three years ago after hearing it as a opening theme song from an anime, and after listening to her catalog frequently in that frame, it's still a great song.

Rush......  I can't recall the first ever Rush song I heard.  It may have been their cover of Summertime Blues which WWE used as a theme song for Summerslam in 2004.  I think my first thought of that song was "It's an all right song, but it's a sound where I'm not certain if I will hear that band again in the near future."  At the time, I honestly thought that they were a relatively newer band.  Not a band that's been around for 30+ years around that period.  Boy, I was really wrong on that one and when I rediscovered them around 2012 after watching Beyond the Lighted Stage, I decided to dive more into Rush and here we are.

[pg1067]

There aren't a lot of bands where I can say for sure what the first song I heard was.

DT - Pull Me Under.  I was blown away initially, but once I bought the album, I found 3-4 songs I liked even better.  It's a very middle of the pack DT song (which is nothing but a testament to the strength of DT's catalog).

Iron Maiden - Flight of Icarus.  First heard it by way of the video on MTV.  Really dug it.  As with PMU, though, there are a bunch of songs on the album that are better.  Still love it.

Triumph - A World of Fantasy.  Again, first heard it by way of the video and didn't like it at all.  Love it now.

Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart.  It was pretty good.  Mostly stood out for the weird keyboard effects.  Now I think of it as just meh (and MUCH prefer the classic material over the '80s material).

[twosuitsluke]

I guess I'll do a quick run down of my top 5?

Coheed and Cambria - I first heard Welcome Home on a CD free with Kerrang magazine, back in 2005. I loved it then, and although my love for it has waned a little (due to how much I've listened to it) I can still jam out to it. That is why C&C have become my favourite band. They are a band that I honestly never get sick of. I have played some of their albums many, many times, yet I can still go back to them without feeling sick of them!

Metallica - My older brother exposed me to them a lot when I was a kid. The first album I owned as an adult was the Black Album, and unsurprisingly, my first love was Enter Sandman. Quite the opposite to Coheed, I can hardly listen to The Black Album and Enter Sandman, due to the amount of times I've played it. I don't hate it though.

NOFX - I remember first hearing them also due to a Kerrang cover CD. I purchased their greatest hits shortly afterwards and I'm pretty sure the first song I loved was Dinosaurs Will Die. I still love it to be fair. The great thing about NOFX is, they have released so many songs that I haven't overplayed some of them like with some of my other favourite bands.

Nobuo Uematsu - The first Final Fantasy game I played was VII, back in '97. It will always be my favourite and Those Who Fight Further was my first love! I still love it and have many different versions of it on my ipod. My favourite version is the Black Mages version 

The Dear Hunter - My first love was Waves. I tried Acts I-III back in '14/'15, but didn't really particularly love them. Then I watched the video for Waves, when it dropped. It all just clicked and I became obsessed with Act IV, and The Dear Hunter in general. Waves is easily the song by the band that I've played most. I still like it but not as much as I used to.

[Stadler]

I'd say it's not 100%, but across the board, I generally still love now what I loved then.   

Billy Joel was the first musician I took a shining to, and The Stranger, my first album, is still my favorite.   The title track and "Scenes..." I still love (though I've grown an appreciation for "Vienna" and "She's Always A Woman").   

Maiden:   it was TNOTB, and the favorites were The Prisoner, Run To The Hills, and Total Eclipse (from the single).  Total Eclipse is still a top five Maiden song.

Kiss...  hard to remember.  Alive II was my first Kiss record, but I hardly listen to that anymore.   I don't remember the order I got the six originals, but those are the albums I go back to most.   I'm pretty sure I still like what I liked then:  I dig Side Four of Alive II, then from the studio records, Cold Gin, Deuce, Let Me Go Rock 'n' Roll, She, Flaming Youth, Love 'Em and Leave 'Em, See You In Your Dreams.

Genesis:  Abacab (the song).  I like other songs from Abacab (the album) better, but that's still my one or two top favorite Genesis albums (Wind and Withering is the other).

[HOF]

Marillion - Easter. First heard this on 5YIALT but I also went and got Season’s End first because of it. I still love it. Still my favorite guitar solo and one of the most beautiful songs ever.

Big Big Train the first song I really really got attached to was Powder Monkey. I don’t revisit it as much as a lot of their other stuff, but it’s still a great song that I love.

I’ll say Supper’s Ready for Genesis, as Foxtrot was my introduction to the non-radio hit side of Genesis. I remember thinking “ah, that’s where Neal Morse is coming from.” That’s still one of my favorite songs of all time for sure.

Rush, I don’t think I have one song. I slowly got into them over a long period of time and not in any particular order (first three purchases were Retrospective II, Vapor Trails, and 2112/Fly By Night). At a certain point I realized “man, I really love this band.” I think one of my early early favorites was Distant Early Warning, so maybe I’ll go with that. Still love that song (and album) for sure.

[Stadler]

Actually, Marillion is an interesting one:  that was Kayleigh, from the video.  I only listened to the rest of the album because Fish - to me - sounded like Peter Gabriel in that song (by the way, Pete's first song, "Shock The Monkey" is still a strong favorite).    I LIKE Kayleigh, but it has been so overshadowed by the rest of the album, by the rest of the Fish catalogue, that, while I "like" it, I can't say it's a strong favorite.

[Mladen]

Creep by Radiohead is the first one that comes to my mind.

I was obsessed by the song when I first heard it. It was impossible to get it out of my head for months. But once I got into the rest of the discography, I rarely came back. I still like the song, but man, did the surpass it dozens and dozens of times.

[Elite]

The first ones that comes to mind that I actually recall being the *first track* I heard from a band are;

Passing by Leprous
First track on the first album I heard back in 2010. Love it still. Top 10 in their discography, probably.

Tomorrow Never Knows by Ulver
Someone (Sacul?) sent this in one of my roulettes and I probably didn't score it well. It was years later that I (re)discovered Ulver. It's a cool track, but in their amazing discography, it's not one of my favourites

Red Hands by The Dear Hunter
It was this song that made me check out the entire album and Act Two is still my favourite record by time, with this track being one of its highlights.

My other 'favourite' bands I have no idea which song(s) I heard first. In some cases it must have been simply the first song on the first album I heard, in other cases I really have no idea which song it was.

[Peter Mc]

Another big one for me was Chop Suey by System Of A Down.  Literally a band I had zero interest in, then I heard this incredible song and I was like “this one song alone deserves me buying the album”.  It’s still an absolute masterpiece of a song, never tire of it.  Their first 2 albums are genius level music.

[nick_z]

Very nice thread and idea...good way to go down memory lane...

First that come to mind...

Metallica: Blackened. Still love it, and one of my favorite songs of theirs

Guns 'n Roses: Paradise City. Still love it.

Dream Theater: Pull me under. Bought I&W in the summer of '92. Still love the song. Wasn't necessarily my favorite even back then, but such an impact on me at the time

Rush: Animate. Counterparts was the first CD I bought of what has become my favorite band. Still LOVE the song and the album. I always thought the first few live versions I heard didn't do the song justice (it sounded...slower?), but when they played it on R40 (which I got to witness) it was one of my personal highlights

Paradise Lost: Gothic. Heard it from a friend. Still great, although I have a preference for the Icon-Draconian Times-One Second era

Queensryche: Best I can. Yes, still love it

Fates Warning: Part of the machine. I got Perfect Symmetry right around when Inside Out was coming out. I like the song and the album even more now than I did back then. Perfect Symmetry-Parallels-Inside Out is where it's at for me (the rest is not too shabby either  )

Pantera: Mouth for war. Yep, still love it

The Gathering: Strange machines. Ah, Mandylion, what a beautiful, unique record. Even better songs in here, but definitely still love it

Savatage: Edge of thorns. Still one of my favorite songs and albums. Sweet spot for their sound, I think. And Criss Oliva's playing on this is so good.

Blind Guardian: Traveler in time. Love Tales from the Twilight World! One of many great songs in there.

Iron Maiden: Aces High (I think). Such a good opener. Still love it

Katatonia: Brave. I am big fan of all phases in Katatonia's discography. Brave Murder Day is no exception and its opener is a top song.

I'm sure I'll think of more...

[EPICVIEW]

Pull Me Under got me in to DT, and down the road of progressive metal. I still love it but don't listen to it often.

It's hard to think back to my other favorite bands, like Maiden and Floyd, and what the first song from those bands was that I heard. I think my first exposure to those bands was via albums anyway, so pinpointing it to a song is more difficult.

I love PULL ME UNDER   its maybe my fav still

[nick_z]

I guess I kinda misread this as ..."the first song you heard"...although these are clearly all cases of first song I heard and liked, so it works too 

[MirrorMask]

I guess I kinda misread this as ..."the first song you heard"...although these are clearly all cases of first song I heard and liked, so it works too 

I made that distintion because the point was to judge the song you actually liked, that made you go "wow", and how it compared after years of listening to the rest of the albums.... the first song one just listened to depends too much on chance, I thought it was more interesting to compare how well aged the song that actually made you interested in a band.

[nick_z]

I guess I kinda misread this as ..."the first song you heard"...although these are clearly all cases of first song I heard and liked, so it works too 

I made that distintion because the point was to judge the song you actually liked, that made you go "wow", and how it compared after years of listening to the rest of the albums.... the first song one just listened to depends too much on chance, I thought it was more interesting to compare how well aged the song that actually made you interested in a band.

Yes, makes perfect sense. BTW, couldn't help but notice your signature - definitely have to second the appreciation for Elisa. Speaking of "wow" factor, I can  still remember the first time I heard "Labyrinth" from her debut. Great song!

[hefdaddy42]

The first song I remember hearing that made me think "That's my favorite song" was Hard to Say I'm Sorry by Chicago, and I still love it, and they are one of my historically favorite bands (although I haven't cared too much for any of their most recent stuff).

[Kotowboy]

I still love Screamager by Therapy? This Is a Call by Foo Fighters. The One I love by REM. Basket Case by Green Day.