10 Best Opening Album Tracks

The best thing The Rolling Stones have ever written. Gimme Shelter is a perfect song, from its unforgettable riff to one of the best guest spots in recorded history. It serves as the opening to the band's 1969 album Let It Bleed. As the record plays through, you can't help but think of this song, awe-inspired and amazed.

With a silky smooth riff that only Keith Richards could play, it's a song that has been used in so many TV and movie montages whenever a director needed power, soul or just plain cool. Just watch the opening of The Departed and you'll see. 

Of course, who can forget the great moment where Merry Clayton, the guest female vocalist's voice breaks, as she scream 'Rape, Murder, it's just a shot away, it's just a shot away' It's the kind of thing that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

A 10/10 song if ever there was one, Gimme Shelter, with its violent lyrics and anti-war message, opens Let It Bleed perfectly. The Rolling Stones aren't going to write anything better; they never have and they never will. The perfect opening song.