Musical signatures

Something I’ve been thinking about for a few minutes now: musicians’ “signature” elements that could be recognized even if used by others. A few nights ago, a friend and I were playing guitar, and I referred to what I call “the Velvet Underground” riff. It’s most recognizable as the riff from “Here She Comes Now” (starts at about 0:06 in this video), but you can hear it in “Waiting for My Man,” briefly in “European Son,” and slight variations underlie both “I Found a Reason” and “Pale Blue Eyes.” I hope this gives the flavor of what I’m thinking of: instrumental (as opposed to production, vocal, or lyrics-based) commonalities between several of an artist’s songs, that a listener might come to associate unconsciously with that artist’s “sound.” A couple other, famous examples are the Bo Diddley beat and the Hendrix chord. I’m always one for music lists, so let me know if you’ve got any good examples of musical signatures, and I’ll update this post when I think of more.