Cool topic. There are so many, but the opening blast of "License to Confuse" on Sebadoh's Bakesale immediately springs to mind. Cue it up, turn it up to the point of being too loud, and hit play. It'll scare you at first, but then you'll find yourself happily trashing your room to it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTJp1o_RRDc

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Screaming Skull again.

There are tons of openers I love. These are a few off the top of my head in no particular order.

The opening drum fill to Only Shallow gets me every time. David Bowie's Station to Station is fantastic. Summer Babe comes to mind. Disorder - Joy Division, Welcome to the Working Week - Elvis Costello, Schizophrenia - Sonic Youth, Sunday Morning - The Velvet Underground, Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus - The Mars Volta, Untitled - Interpol, Arcarsenal - At the Drive-In, The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths.

Mazzy Star- Fade Into You (So That Tonight I Might See)
Groundation- What Could Have Been (Upon the Bridge)
Sizzla- The World (Bobo Ashanti)
Hole - Violet (Live Through This)


and the thread winner iz.....


Deftones- Feitercita (White Pony)

Feitercita as an opening track is intense. The riff is abrasive and obnoxious, the attack is bewildering, the drums hypnotic, the vocals dreamy then scathing then dreamy (sort of like all Chino's songs). I mean, is there really a better way to open an experimental metal album?

Dynamite opener!!!
This is also great: Love: Alone Again Or...

Yes, also the original track version (I think it was the first in UK) didn´t include Purple Haze, Hey Joe & the Wind Cries Mary, there was Red House, Can You See Me & remember instead of those. I think before 67 it was very common US versions had the hitsingles including, UK didn´t. And I think very many already know Beatles & Stones albums are almost totally different (even the album names & covers) before 67.

About Canadian releases, there were different tracklists also in the seventies & eighties releases. I used to have canadian version of Jethro Tull Benefit, where was Teacher instead of Alive & Well and Living In. And I still have canadian version of first Iron Maiden-album where is Sanctuary as a some kind of "bonus" (it´s not in the end of the album, it´s on middle of b-side). I prefer original versions with original tracklists, but this album I have kept. Many collectors at least here Finland don´t respect canadian versions at all, but to me it´s totally same from which country the album is made as long as the covers & tracklists are original. Of course original version of the album is always the original, but they´re also quite expensive (just bought original UK Hendrix Smash Hits & it WAS expensive).

MBV - Only Shallow
Wu-Tang - Bring da Ruckus
Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen
Dinosaur - Little Fury Things
Liars - Be Quiet Mount Heart Attack
Led Zep - Black Dog/Good Times Bad Times
JAMC - Just Like Honey
Suicide - Ghost Rider
Radiohead - Everything In It's Right Place
Pixies - Debaser
Stooges - Down on the Street
Stones - Hot Rocks
Metallica - Blackened
Velvets - Sunday Morning/White Light
Laurel Halo - Airsick
Oval - Do While
TFUL - Gentlemen's Lament
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
Silver Jews - Random Rules
GBV - Hardcore UFOs
Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You
Mats - I Will Dare
Fugazi - Repeater
Boris - Pink
Motorhead - Ace of Spades...............

.........and the opening track to Torch of the Mystics

I think Turnover is the first track...

Is this the "canadian"-version you meaned?
http://www.discogs.com/Jimi-Hendrix-...elease/4860762

This is from 2010, but I think first versions of this came in the nineties all over the world. It was that Hendrix "Sister" who released it and there are all songs from both US & UK Are Experienced-versions and also the early singles b-sides. All the earlier Canadian versions are same as the US-versions (at least what I found from discogs).

This. Definitely this.

UK edition and USA editions had different tracklist

I love killer opening tracks.

AT The Drive In - Relationship of Command
Opening Track - ARCARSENAL http://youtu.be/kBUtkPrANRs
Fucking awesome, constantly building, starts at 11 and goes up from there. Fucking killer killer opening track.

DINOSAUR JR - Green Mind
Opening Track - THE WAGON http://youtu.be/xbNmTyDhIas

The Cure - Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me
OPening Track - The Kiss http://youtu.be/XzlR8PT9S-A
This song is so fucking awwesome. It sets up the massive double LP that follows.

"Teeth Like God's Shoeshine" - Modest Mouse [Lonesome Crowded West]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0qBdHLspQ

"Stereo" - Pavement [Brighten The Corners]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnrM4UjaQmY

"The Plan" - Built To Spill [Keep It Like A Secret]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MjBMhlMq3s

"(I Am Taking Out My Eurotrash) I Still Get Rocks Off" - Blonde Redhead [La Mia Violenta]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV5ERiBWQiA

"No Wow" - The Kills [No Wow]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX6ndnb80h0

"Mass Romantic" - New Pornographers [Mass Romantic]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_amzzg34Rc

ma bad shit

and 21st century schizoid man most definitely

I think Fugazi and Dinosaur Jr. are the kings of starting tracks. Every first song on every release is so awesome. My favorite Fugazi ones are 'Turnover' from the album 'Repeater' and 'Exit only' from 'Steady diet of nothing'.
Favorite Dinosaur Jr. ones: 'little fury things' from 'You're living all over me' and 'Out there' from 'Where you been'.

Totally agree on both counts! 'Out There' is an amazing, amazing jam...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z81LcFhmqP4

Television's See No Evil, though not as memorable as Venus or the title track, was an excellent opener.

I'm not huge into the post-hardcore genre anymore, but Here Come the Rome Plows introduces the aggressiveness of Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime very well, but Luau remains the shining track of the entire record.

Ether by Gang of Four definitely deserves a mention as a exceptional start to an exceptional album.

I second the See No Evil. Love that song