What are the most classic, original AND distinctive songs you have ever heard?

Trying to avoid many gems that have not yet been mentioned in this thread:

Elvis Presley - Heartbreak Hotel
Roxy Music - Virginia Plain
Donna Summer - I Feel Love

 

The Cramps - Human Fly
The Birthday Party - Release The Bars
Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead

Human Fly is this unique combination of punk and rockabilly that still sounds unique, and then two post-punk classics about vampires. Very risky for Bauhaus to debut with a long, punk/dub hybrid about an old movie star.

 

Is It Over? by Kim Wilde
The Chauffeur by Duran Duran
Station To Station by David Bowie

 

I believe these songs had no precedent when they were written. And they still sound pretty unique today.

Alone & Forsaken - Hank Williams
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Rumble - Link Wray
Heroin - The Velvet Underground
Street Hassle - Lou Reed

 

a random 3 from my playlist:
Sparks: This Town Ain't big Enough
Siouxsie & The Banshees: Spellbound
Grandmaster Flash: The Message

 

Since You’re Gone - The Cars

 

The Mighty Mac of course:

 

I completely missed that. BTW, I'd be tempted to add Love Reign O're Me.

 

Houses In Motion
Crosseyed and Painless

The Talking Heads

 

Broken Arrow - Buffalo Springfield

 

Laura Nyro - Luckie
New Order - Blue Monday
Spice Girls - Wannabe
XTC - The Wheel & The Maypole
Girls Aloud - Biology

Each one has a dozen ideas thrown into them; most of them utterly ignore traditional notions of structure; each sounds like nothing else I've ever heard; and (to me), each one is classic and absolutely perfect.

 

Foreplay / Longtime - Boston

 

1st one I thought of when I saw this thread.

Everything else pales to GV in my playlist, but here is one that came close: "Life in a Northern Town" - The Dream Academy

 

"Close to the Edge" - Yes

• I. "The Solid Time of Change"
• II. "Total Mass Retain"
• III. "I Get Up, I Get Down"
• IV. "Seasons of Man"

 

Joni: The Jungle Line, You Turn Me On, Blue, All I Want, well I could just go on and on...

 

Venus In Furs

 

I would say Heroes and Villains more than GV. Maybe i just like it better.

 

Yes!

 

running with the devil

 

holiday in cambodia

 

seek and destroy

 

For What It's Worth- Buffalo Springfield

 

So far as distinctive and classic in my book .... most of the tracks mentioned I would agree with ....

Some left of center stuff that I love that is very distinctive

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - From Her To Eternity.

Beefheart - Frownland

Zappa - The Ocean Is The Ultimate Solution

Bowie - DJ

New Order - Thieves Like Us

Tom Waits - 16 Shells From a Thirty Ought Six

 

"You Haven't Done Nothin' " - Stevie Wonder

1974

 

AC/DC : It’s A Long Way To The Top ( If You Wanna Rock n’ Roll ).