Bands you loved the very first time you heard them

[Jolly Blue Giant]

When I look back on my life as an old codger, I can think of only a handful of bands that instantly got my attention and I instantly loved. I call it my, "had me at hello" musical moment in life. Hasn't happened in a long time

For me, it started with the Beatles. First song I ever heard was "She Loves You", and instantly fell in love with them. Never stopped after all these years (1963)

The next one that claimed my soul and my thirst for great music was Led Zeppelin; however, since they have been so overplayed, I've lost some of that initial jaw dropping love...or perhaps, it has more to do with quitting smoking pot in my mid-20's as I matured (some would argue that I never matured, but I digress). They hit the music scene in 1969

I think the next time I heard a band for the first time that floored me and I loved them, was Boston; perhaps because of my fondness for Uriah Heep that used organ and a lot of harmony, and I got the same vibe from them. As much as I liked UH, they never held a candle to Boston IMHO. I still turn the radio up when I hear "More Than a Feeling" and pretty much every one of their other songs (1976)

It took more than a decade before I heard a band that once again, grabbed me and made me wanted more...that'd be Guns and Roses. Came on strong for a couple years, then faded away

I can't think of a band that has come along since then that had me hooked the first time I heard them...maybe, Shinedown when I heard "Second Chance". I have followed them ever since. They started in Jacksonville, FL in the early 2000's. They've had more no.1 hits (19) than any other band since 2000...and it's not even close. I also find the lead singer/song writer (Brent Smith) as a great spokesman for mental health awareness, who has battled the disease and overcame it. In the last decade, he has played more concerts than any other band (including Taylor Swift), and donates 10% of the proceeds of every concert to the mental health foundation as well as hundreds of thousands to suicide prevention, particularly veterans. His songs are almost always touching on mental health ("Sound of Madness", "Monsters", "If You Only Knew", "State of my Head", "How Did You Love", etc)

I've loved a lot of bands over the years: Rolling Stones, Three Dog Night, Tommy James and the Shondells, the Four Seasons, The Bee Gees, Grand Funk Railroad, CCR, Heart, Three Doors Down, and a host of others...but none of them "had me at hello" the way the four I mentioned. One group that I loved the first time I heard them was Bachman Turner Overdrive, but for some reason, as fast as I liked them, I couldn't stand to listen to them a short while later

What's your "had me at hello" moment in music? Who am I missing?

[EDjohnst1981]

Interpol, We are Scientists, Oasis - love them as much now as I did when I heard the first track.

[squibber]

Pink Floyd - Echoes
Iron Butterfly - In a Gadda Da Vida long version
Kinks - You Really Got Me
Byrds - Turn Turn Turn
Rolling Stones - Particularly liked Ruby Tuesday
Metallica - Sandman

[LennG]

I never was a true 'hard rock's music guy so all the bands that are like that I was really never into


I would say my favorite all time band that I truly loved from the get go was CCR.
I never considered the BeeGees a true band, more of a group, but if so they would be next.
Followed by the Beatles, Alabama.
I guess there have been others but I really can't think of any that truly grabbed me and never let go after those.

[Sem]

Not many for me. I suppose I got swept up in the Beatles frenzy in the early-mid 60's. I was too young to really appreciate their beginnings at the time but my grandparents bought me the Beatles Second Album when I was around 7 years old. Even though I loved most everything they recorded I never bought another Beatles album.

Like @squibber I was instantly hooked on Pink Floyd the moment I listened to their Ummagumma album.

The only other band I can think of would be The Alan Parsons Project. I remember the exact circumstances of the first song I ever heard from them. I was 19, early summer, laying on a couch around 1 or 2am at at my parents. I had headphones on listening to the radio, (an AOR FM station), slipping in and out of sleep. The song The Raven from their debut album came on the radio and I sat right up. Never heard it before but immediately loved it. When the song ended I called in to the radio station (yeah, they had actual DJ's back then, and they would even answer the phone). I wanted to know who and what I had just heard. Within a few minutes he was actually reading me the liner notes off the LP. All of them. And so it began. After that night I quickly learned he was the recording engineer on PF's Dark Side of the Moon. He later did the same on Al Stewart's Year of the Cat album, a couple of Ambrosia albums...McCartney albums too. He even worked at Abbey Road Studio as a 19 year old technician while the Beatles were recording their Abbey Road and Let it Be albums. During the mid 70's through the end of the 90's he was my musical hero. In the early 2000's I was actually able to meet him....and then dozens more times. Got to know him and his wife Lisa. Once had dinner with them just outside of St. Louis. A few years later my wife and I were invited to their hotel suite, in Sparks Nevada, for lunch. And through him I was able to meet so many of classic rock's royalty. Still blows my mind to this day.

[Ed Vette]

I was more into acoustic Singer songwriters than Groups.
Dylan
Eric Andersen
Cat Stephens
Elton John
Joni
Joel
Young
Buffett
Simon

Blues artists too like
Mississippi John Hurts
Lead belly
Stevie Ray...

Far too many..

As far as Groups, I would say,
Kansas
Styx
Marshall Tucker
Skynard
Floyd
Zep
Queen
Stones
3 Dog
ZZ Top
Alice Cooper
Monkeys (yes lol)

For Groups, it was more of a one album.

[Jolly Blue Giant]

Funny you mentioned The Monkeys, Ed. I too thought they were going to be a great band when they released their first song "Last Train to Clarksville". But they were kind of a flash in the pan, and as music became more sophisticated, they were put in the class of "bubble gum chewing music"...lol. I think the culmination of their work had to be "Daydream Believer" and it was downhill from there. Nowhere near as bad as the 1910 Fruit Gum Company, or the Ohio Express for bubble gum, but the Monkeys never evolved like the Beatles, Stones, etc., into more complex styles of music. The funny thing is, bubble gum music is catchy when heard for the first time. I think "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I got Love in my Tummy" was the death knoll for bubble gum, just like "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting" (or worse, "Disco Duck") killed disco...Thank God...lol