3 Songs From the 1980s With Unforgettable Intros

An intro needs to hook a listener. While some songs opt for a slow build, others get right to the point. The three songs from the 1980s below fall into the latter category. These songs waste no time in flexing generation-defining moments in their intros.

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“Sweet Child of Mine” (Guns N’ Roses)

The guitar riff at the beginning of Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine” is instantly recognizable. Few riffs are as famous as the one in this song’s intro. The rock legend goes that this riff was a warm-up exercise for Slash. While it certainly wasn’t a concentrated writing effort, that’s not the whole truth of it.

“It wasn’t a warm-up exercise,” the guitarist once said. “I was sitting around the house where Guns used to live at one point in ’86, I guess it was, and I just came up with this riff. It was just me messing around and putting notes together like any riff you do.”

Regardless of how it came about, this riff is beloved and one of the most enduring in rock history.

“Billie Jean” (Michael Jackson)

You know your musicianship is strong when fans instantly recall a few simple drum hits. The drum beat and bassline at the beginning of Michael Jackson‘s “Billie Jean” are some of the best seconds of music from the ’80s. Though it eventually gives way to Jackson’s unforgettable vocals, the instrumental intro is unforgettable.

The late, great producer of much of Jackson’s music, Quincy Jones, had qualms with the intro when it was written. “I said, ‘Michael we’ve got to cut that intro,’” Jones once recalled. “He said, ‘But that’s the jelly! That’s what makes me want to dance.’ And when Michael Jackson tells you, ‘That’s what makes me want to dance,’ well, the rest of us just have to shut up.”

Luckily, he listened to Jackson, and we were all gifted this floor-filling intro.

[RELATED: The Massively Influential Song Van Halen Wrote as a Parody: “It Was a Stupid Thing to Us”]

“Jump” (Van Halen)

Synths were an inescapable part of the ’80s. One of the most effective uses of synths came from Van Halen’s “Jump.” The song launches into an earworm synth riff that later acts as the backbone for the rest of this hit. Van Halen may have made guitar-forward music for most of their career, but no one can deny that this synth moment was a strong point for the group.

There is no mistaking which song is about to come on when you hear these synth tones. No other song has used the electronic instrument in quite the same way.