Best Track 1, Side 1s?

[Queequeg]

Listening to The Thermal's The Body, The Blood, The Machine.  It's probably my favorite straight Punk album.  It's a concept album about a desperate relationship set in a theocratic America, and the first song is blunt, energizing, extremely evocative of violent Biblical imagery and, frankly, more than a bit scary. 

So here's So Here's Your Future.

I'm not certain this is the best, but it is certainly a great one.

[MadImmortalMan]

2112 is the obvious answer, but there are probably lots of great ones.

[Eddie Teach]

Smells Like Teen Spirit is even more obvious. My personal fave though is probably Round Here.

[Pedrito]

Good Times Bad Times, Led Zeppelin
Whole Lotta Love, Led Zeppelin II
Immigrant Song, Led Zeppelin III
Black Dog, Led Zeppelin IV

Four exceptional openings that set the bar pretty high to the rest of the album. But these are four exceptional albums.

L.

[Pedrito]

Others that come to mind:

Debaser, Doolittle, the Pixies
Europa Endlos, Trans-Europe Express, Kraftwerk
Block Rockin' Beats, Dig Your Own Hole, The Chemical Brothers
London Calling, London Calling, The Clash
The Grudge, Lateralus, Tool

L.

[Monoriu]

I don't really own a lot of CDs.  Of the non-Chinese ones, I recall John Williams Greatest Hits 1969-1999.

Track 1, Side 1 is Star Wars Main Theme. 

That is hard to beat 

[Syt]

Slayer - Reign In Blood - Angel of Death
Guns N'Roses - Appetite for Destruction - Welcome to the Jungle
Iron Maiden - Powerslave - Aces High
Blind Guardian - At the Edge of Time - Sacred Worlds
Sepultura - Chaos A.D. - Refuse/Resist (or Roots - Roots Bloody Roots)
Manowar (yeah, I went there) - Triumph of Steel - Achilles, Agony and Extasy in Eight Parts (so yeah, it's half an hour long, but it's technically one track )
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Second Edition - Sweet Home Alabama

[celedhring]

Most of early Springsteen albums just completely blow you away right from the start:

Springsteen - Born to Run - Thunder Road
Springsteen - Born in the USA - Born in the USA
Springsteen - Darkness in the Edge of Town - Badlands

Other outstanding track #1s, off the top of my head:

U2 -Joshua Tree - Where the Streets Have No Name
U2 -War - Sunday Bloody Sunday
Guns'n' Roses -Appetite for destruction - Welcome to the Jungle
Hendrix - Electric Ladyland - All along the Watchtower
AC/DC - High Voltage - It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock'n'roll
Bowie - Hunky Dory - Changes
Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed - Gimme Shelter
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand - Jacqueline
REM - Automatic for the People - Drive


There's surely tons of others, mind.

[Ideologue]

"Five Years" off of Ziggy Stardust has got to be a contender, though I will also go with "Round Here" in solidarity with a rare showing of taste from Eddie Teach.

[celedhring]

Was tempted to include Five Years too, but I thought my list was way too dominated by 70s albums, but hey...

Another great 70s #1 (and one of my favorite songs) is Velvet Undreground's Candy Says.

I think there's a significant change of listening habits from the 2000s onward, though, when digital made it so I rarely listen to full albums anymore.

[Pedrito]

I think there's a significant change of listening habits from the 2000s onward, though, when digital made it so I rarely listen to full albums anymore.

Yes. Queequeg though, being the hipster he is, rolled back to listen to heavyweight vinyl records. Next step will be the recording of two albums on crappy Maxell 90' tapes to be listened to with a Walkman Sports. 

L.

[Scipio]

Springsteen- Darkness on the Edge of Town- Badlands
Springsteen- Born to Run- Thunder Road
Beatles- Abbey Road- Come Together
Beatles- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Led Zeppelin II- Whole Lotta Love
Counting Crows- Round Here
BB King & Eric Clapton- Riding with the King- Riding with the King
Denis Leary- No Cure for Cancer- Asshole
The Pogues- If I Should Fall From Grace with God- If I Should Fall From Grace with God

[MadImmortalMan]

Jugulator

[Liep]

God you people are old.

Pearl Jam - Ten - Once (1991)
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless - Only Shallow (1996)
The White Stripes - Elephant - Seven Nation Army (2003)
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm - Like Eating Glass (2005)
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Flight - The Modern Leper (2008)
Tom Waits - Bad As Me - Chicago (2011)
Japandroids - Celebration Rock - The Nights of Wine and Roses (2012)
King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon - Easy Easy (2013)

[Caliga]

Most of early Springsteen albums just completely blow you away right from the start:

Springsteen - Born to Run - Thunder Road
Springsteen - Born in the USA - Born in the USA
Springsteen - Darkness in the Edge of Town - Badlands

+1 on all of these.

Also,

Black Sabbath - Paranoid - War Pigs
Judas Priest - Turbo - Turbo Lover
AC/DC - Back In Black - Hell's Bells
Van Halen - Van Halen I - Runnin' With The Devil