With tribute bands and some oldies, I found a long time ago when the tunes were new and even more popular, only when played in the original key will they trigge

With tribute bands and some oldies, I found a long time ago when the tunes were new and even more popular, only when played in the original key will they trigger the near-instant familiarity when a broad range of listeners hear the exact same few intro notes. Now some of the tribute bands (or even original artists) will tune a half-step lower than the hits were originally on the radio at, for one thing so they don't have to sing quite as high as when they were younger. Although plenty can play it perfect and can sing it perfect in either tuning, these are some oldies covered that are well-rehearsed to sound as close to original as they can get. Even more so when you can barely hear it, whether in the distance, muffled, with background noise, or only the first few notes, it doesn't trigger the "normal" amount of familiarity nearly as quickly regardless of how accurately it is performed, unless it is also at the original pitch that people heard it a million times on the radio.