It's still the one of the five I listed that even today when I hear it, I think "How did a pop group manage to get something like this onto a mainstream record???" I mean I know they were the most popular mainstream group of the day but... It remains a truly revolutionary orgasm of bewildering yet hypnotic sound! Again, especially in the realm of what mere pop groups were doing at the time... And while it's never just one song, one artist, or one album that changes everything, I still think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" (almost as a literal one-two punch) remain the two greatest examples that informed the 1960's that "we are not in Kansas anymore".
The Velvet Underground, "Venus in Furs" (whiplash girl-child in the dark), "Heroin" The Kinks, "You Really Got Me", "See My Friends" King Crimson, "21st Century Schizoid Man" Gil Scott-Heron, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"
Although it's pretty mainstream in terms of composition and execution for the day, I'd say "Born To Be Wild" had no real precedent, and took off like wildfire once it hit the ground runnin'. (Although, knowing the film it came out of, for some time I could have sworn the line "heavy metal thunder" was really, "Every man a 'Fonda'...")
Joe Dolce - Shaddup Your Face (is that the exact title, don't remember). Anyway, it's a novelty song so by definition I guess it has no precedent... Well, all novelty songs could be contenders! Perhaps something by Jean-Michel Jarre? And New Order - Blue Monday?
Eruption - Van Halen Sure there were some prior instances of fret board tapping - but not like what was done here
Two Hendrix singles. I'm torn between Burning of the Midnight Lamp and his performance of All Along the Watchtower.
Great call. Starship Trooper is actually the one I thought of but either works for this discussion really. I do think Yes in general even beyond that track had way more than their fair share of wildly original music at least starting with The Yes Album. To me they sounded like basically no one else, and that includes other bands grouped in the prog rock category. I think it boils down to having more or less a whole group full of unique musical personalities - not one of them played or sang or wrote like anyone else. Nobody has ever pulled off a long form rock piece even remotely as successful or original as Close to the Edge in my opinion. I would also suggest in a very different approach that the Doors’ Break on Through and Light My Fire were also “mind blown” unique at release in many ways.
Another Beatle Lennon thing: Switching tempo from 4/4 to 3/4 (or 6/8) and back within a song...he did this quite a lot...Rain, She Said She Said, Lucy in The Sky, Mr. Kite, Good Morning, Yer Blues, Happiness....I wonder if anyone did that prior?