See headline, would like to hear some reasoned answers
I’ll tell you the 3 worst ones:
Throw My Bones
Money Talks
A Simple Song
Best – in no order:
Highway Star,
Burn
Fireball
Worst:
House of Pain
Time for Bedlam
Listen, Learn, Read On
Best:
Speed King
Ted The Mechanic
Stormbringer
Honourable Mention: Knocking at Your Back Door (just for the intro, which is iconic)
Worst:
King of Dreams
Throw My Bones
Any Fule Kno That
Honourable Mention: Bad Attitude
Time For Bedlam?!?!. Wtf. Closet Mark Morse came to the spirit of MK2 imo.
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Speed King, Highway Star and Burn. All three are emphatic statements if ever there was one, or should that be three. Cheers.
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Speed King
Highway Star
Any Fule Kno That
for me the bedt
Best: Speed King, Burn, Stormbringer and honourable mention for Woman from Tokyo
Worst: Comin’ home, Throw my bones, 7 and 7 is (yeah it’s the one from this (in-)famous covers album, but an official Purple release)
Controversial question, is there a good Purple album with a terrible opener?
Highway Star, Why Didn’t Rosemary, Fireball
(Ask me next week, these might change 
Bedlam – the spoken introduction is beyond cheesy and no matter what follows, it ruins the track. Can’t believe Ezrin didn’t block it out.
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The spoken words intro maybe is a little bit too theatralic, even if the song itself is maybe not a candidate for best opener I have to admit that I like it. Nevertheless if we consider Bedlam as a terrible opener, then my question is answered - a good album with a bad start 
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Three are too few.
Highway Star
Knockin’ At Your Back Door
Burn
A Simple Song
Two of them are among my favorites! I found Simple Song incredibly atmospheric as an opener, I love that song. And Throw My Bones is an underrated classic as well.
I was undecided about whether to include Simple Song or not, because all in all it’s a good song, but for me, it’s too weak as an album opener.
Throw My Bones is an especially weak opener, and generally an unremarkable song.
Simple Song is a gem, as an opener or not. Times have changed, the need for speed was back when everyone was younger. Cheers.
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Allow me to start by saying that Deep Purple have always known how to kick off an album, so the best are very close to the worst.
Out of the album openers the top tracks could easily be Speed King, Fireball, Highway Star, Woman From Tokyo, Burn, Stormbringer, Coming Home, Knocking At Your Back Door, King Of Dreams, The Battle Rages On, Ted The Mechanic, Any Fule Kno That, House Of Pain and Time For Bedlam.
On a good day, And The Address, Listen Learn Read On, Chasing Shadows, Bad Attitude, A Simple Song and Throw My Bones could all make it near the top 3.
The ones that won’t make the cut even on a good day, are then the “worst” are Money Talks, Show Me and Arrogant Boy.
(Then there is 7 And 7 Is, which is among the greatest songs in the genre, but the Purple version is too far behind the original; there are, of course, a million cover versions, but in my experience only Alice Cooper’s drug-addled early Eighties new wave interpretation is really worth repeated listens.)
To come up with a meaningful list, I’m going to have to apply some extra criteria here, so let’s say the album opener needs to be the best song on the album as well.
In this case, a top 3 becomes possible:
Fireball
Stormbringer
Time For Bedlam
(Honorable mention: King Of Dreams)
In terms of the worst opener, it’s fairly evident none of the first songs on any record are the worst. But I will name one, if for nothing else, then for the lyrics giving me serious Nigel Farage vibes:
Arrogant Boy
“Simple Song” isn’t an opener; it could have been a great track if not for that incredibly banal, annoying, and drawn-out keyboard section leading into the finale. It could have been better structured. The only good thing about it is Big Ian’s vocals.
First, I question the relevance of “first songs” in an age of streaming and “random/shuffle” functions on CD players!
Secondly, I was absolutely intrigued about how Now What?! started with Simple Song, it was defying expectations initially and then turned into a Purple romp all the same! I actually consider it one of the strongest DP intro songs if you remove yourself from the somewhat adolescent expectation that first songs always have to be “riff scorchers”.
And this shows that the one man’s “incredibly banal, annoying, and drawn-out keyboard section” is another man’s one of the best part of the album. In a word, Simple Song is a great opener. I remember that “wow, the Hammond is back!” feeling the first time I was listening to the album.
…get your ears checked!!!
That Hammond Solo is fantastic!!!
I had the same reaction as Nick -the Hammond is back!
Uwe is right, A Simple Song is a very strong opener, it’s just not as strong to me as say Speed King, which I think is the best opening track of all time with Ritchie’s wonderful cacophony!!!