Whenever I've done analysis of classic popular songs, songs that I like, I'm always a bit shocked by how quick they tend to be. If there's an intro, the intro is often super short, like 4 or even 2 bars. Like you said, having a hook early in the song was always a good idea.
Some of the iconic classical pieces start with a "hook" too. Or, at least, a very compelling motive.
This exactly. Beethoven's fifth symphony drops the hook/motive as the first five notes. It's no coincidence that Mozart's Dies Irae (Requiem) or Orff's O Fortuna (Carmina Burana) are frequently repurposed since they start with a bang.
An interesting nuance of this is dance music, where the orinals can be 7 minutes long with 60+ second intros of just percussion and little musical interest, designed to make them mixable for DJs in clubs.
The core of the song may only be 3 minutes, and that is what you get in radio edits. Half my bought music collection comes from when I DJd, and you can't really throw the full length songs on shuffle else you'd spend all your time listening to minute long intros and outros.
I seem to recall reading somewhere that this structure is becoming less common (in some subgenres of dance music at least) because everyone now DJs on CDJs where it’s trivial to loop the intro and control when the song drops in (and use EQ/filter), rather than relying on a long intro with elements coming in.
While you might edit a long song down to a radio-friendly length, I think most songs start out short enough to be radio-friendly in the first place. 3 minutes is about the natural for a typical verse-chorus-bridge structure song. Cut out the bridge and the song will probably clock in closer to 2 minutes.
These longer songs, like Foreplay / Long Time, have a lot more going on. More ideas. More sections. Dramatic crescendos. Extended instrumental parts. They're harder to write.
The standard verse-chorus-bridge structures are popular because it's a really damn good way to write a song.
I immediately thought of Revolver with Eleanor Rigby (chorus), Good Day Sunshine (chorus), and Paperback Writer (chorus hook) at least.
Speaking of classics for the ages, Nickelback's How You Remind Me drops the hook (and title) at about 15s.
Classic (especially 1980s?) rock seems to have lots of chorus first songs from the likes of Guns N' Roses, Cheap Trick, Journey, Stevie Nicks, Bon Jovi, Slade/Quiet Riot, David Bowie, etc.
The hook comes before the chorus, and it's very good. But I think the Kinks' You Really Got Me from the previous year (1964) hits harder out of the gate.
Many rock songs start with great hooks/riffs though. I am particularly fond of 20 foot tall guitar riff hooks/intros as practiced by classic hard rock and metal bands, often by doubling the riff/hook on lead guitar and bass.
Rock bands seem to excel at intros, and even the lengthy ones can be riveting.
And some song intros are so great that they overshadow the rest of the song.
A way to cheat on this is to have the intro technically be a separate song. Playing the album you get an extended intro, but you can just play the "main" song.
The start of Judas Priest's "Screaming for Vengeance" album does this with "The Hellion" blending in to "Electric Eye". "Electric Eye" also has one of the greatest riff/hooks in metal starting off right at the beginning of the song.
Interesting - I don't think I'd heard Not California before.
An oddity that has become increasingly popular over nearly 20 years (breaking records for stream counts and singles chart tenure) is the Killers' Mr. Brightside, which only has one (repeated) verse. Which probably makes it a good singalong anthem.
It also starts with a nice (if short) guitar riff/hook.
Not an expert, but isn't most classical music like that? Most long pieces (e.g., concertos?) start with the main theme that gets unpacked in later parts of the performance.
Kinda but also true that most long pieces have one or two movements that are the popular ones and you have to wait till you get to it. e.g. Ode to Joy is 45+ minutes into the Ninth symphony, Mozart's Rondo alla Turca is the third movement of the K 331 sonata, etc.
Though I feel very bad writing ^^^. The rest of those pieces are very worth listening to. I listen more often to the first movement of the Ninth.
> Kinda but also true that most long pieces have one or two movements that are the popular ones and you have to wait till you get to it.
Is it by design? Was the composer aware that a certain part would end up being that one exceptionally popular one?
The probabiliy that a part not at the beginning is (becomes) popular is higher than for the part at the beginning, because there's more parts not at the beginning than the one at the beginning.
Way ahead of their time, as usual.
Seriously though, it does suggest that having a "hook" early in a song was always a good idea, commercially speaking.