There’s a saying in the music business – “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!” This is particularly true in the pop world, where it’s all about getting into the body of the song quickly and getting those little melodic hooks and sing-a-long choruses into the listener’s ear as soon as possible.

However, outside the artificial, hothouse environment of disposable pop ditties, there are classic songs that fly in the face of this particular rule-of-thumb. They have long, slow-burning, gradual magic intros. If you know them, you recognise them immediately and then just smile and enjoy listening along, waiting for everything to kick off. And, for my money, here are four of the best. At least two of these are absolute classics that almost anyone who grew up during the 70s will know. The other two are probably slightly less well-known (unless you happen to be a Jethro Tull or Steve Earle fan) but are brilliant examples of slow-burning intros nevertheless. Particularly the one from Steve Earle, who manages to get more than halfway through the song and sings the first two verses before the band fully joins in. Way to go that man!