Albums that start on the Vocal.....

if spoken word counts, then:

Orbital - The Brown Album (Time Becomes)

age of chance : 1000 years of trouble.

'there's a beautiful noise coming up from the street ..

Not sure if this really counts because of the 20 seconds of noise before it but I love to see it mentioned

and on the vocal-and-music-at-the-same-time tip:

American Music Club - Engine (Big Night)

McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street opens with "No More Lonely Nights."

Spiritualized - Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space (title track)

The Kinks - Sleepwalker (Life on the Road)

The Kinks - Something Else by The Kinks - (David Watts)

Carter USM - 3O Something (Surfin' U.S.M.)

Bodyswap was on TV recently but with most of Rimmer's speech removed. For shame.

The other Elvis's first album begins this way too ("Well it's-a one for the money"). So does Cliff Richard's studio debut Cliff Sings, with the same song.

Some others:
Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps - Bluejean Bop!
Little Richard - Here's Little Richard
Tommy Steele - The Duke Wore Jeans
Buddy Holly - That'll Be the Day
The Zombies - Begin Here
Little Richard - The Rill Thing
Bee Gees - 2 Years On
Elvis Presley - Elvis Now
The Beach Boys - 15 Big Ones
Paul McCartney - Flowers in the Dirt
The Divine Comedy - Fin de Siècle
Sparks - Hello Young Lovers
The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions

age of chance : 1000 years of trouble.
'there's a beautiful noise coming up from the street ..

Not sure if this really counts because of the 20 seconds of noise before it but I love to see it mentioned

― you can see me from westbury white horse,

was wondering if i was going to get caught out.
i posted, then dug out the track and realised re the industrial noise starts before steven e appears.

Both With the Beatles and Beatles for Sale start on the vocal.

McCartney's Give My Regards to Broad Street opens with "No More Lonely Nights." ― The self-titled drags (Eazy)

I hate to be a pedant but the album version of "No More Lonely Nights" starts with some atmosphere and a bass riff.

I assume a capella and choral music (e.g., Gregorian chant) is disqualified?

Although, I was about to cite Enigma but it turns out that the MCMXC a.D. album started with a synthy bit. Alas.

The Holy Bible

If we're counting vocal and music at the same time

As “Help!” was listed in the OP, I assume we are…

indeed

wrens - seacaucus

I hate to be a pedant but the album version of "No More Lonely Nights" starts with some atmosphere and a bass riff.

Whoops, was assuming it started as the single version does!

Jean-Michel Jarre's Zoolook starts with a processed vocal noise. Not sure if that counts. Both Kevin Rowland's My Beauty and Propaganda's A Secret Wish start with dialogue. Probably not what the OP intended.

And of course Otomo Yoshihide's The Night Before the Death of the Sampling Virus, but that goes without saying.

Another in the speech pile: Portishead's Third

Shellac’s 1,000 Hurts, with its spoken audio calibration.

Laurie Anderson: Strange Angels (Strange Angels)

They say that heaven is like TV
A perfect little world that doesn't really need you

If we're counting vocal and music at the same time

Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure, (“Do The Strand”).

Two albums that start with vocoder:

Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Love Over and Over (Move Over Moon)
Tangerine Dream, Cyclone (Bent Cold Sidewalk)

A third:
YMO, Solid State Survivor (Technopolis)

Madonna - Music

life is peachy
all eyez on me

Tommy James and the Shondells - Crimson and Clover (studio chatter category)

Lizzo - cuz I love you

Ariana Grande – both My Everything and Sweetener

life is peachy

YrJOHNNYROTTENmegaBLAPBLAPyaketyYAKroawrROAWRwhipwhipflipOOOOOOOaripplestiltskinMAAWRRRRRRRflibbityskibbitzblaptremendoogploppersWACKgrocerygroinAAAAJJJJJONGwaaaaaaaaa TWIST....TWIST........TWIST....twist

Genesis "Selling England by the Pound"

Big Black, Songs About Fucking (The Power Of Independent Trucking - "The back-")

The Beatles, With The Beatles, "It Won't Be Long"

Dunno if a count-in counts, but "Roadrunner" from the Jonathan Richman/Modern Lovers debut. And also "Astral Plane" and "I'm Straight" from the same LP.

I might count that particular unusual count-in, but if all count-in’s count then Dee-Dee Ramone to thread!

Tommy James and the Shondells - Crimson and Clover (studio chatter category)

― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, December 27, 2022 8:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Fun fact: James was doing promo at WLS-AM in Chicago, and played a rough mix of "Crimson and Clover" for the station staff off-air. Unbeknownst to him, the station surreptitiously recorded it. On his way to that night's show, he heard the rough mix being played on WLS. Because it got so much airplay, he had to release it as-is.

Hallelujah All the Way Home by the Verlaines: "Well hello there, sordid inmates..."

Kim Deal loves to do this. Pacer by the Amps / Pod & All Nerve by the Breeders. Others Breeders albums don't count but do start really spare and get to a vocal with some urgency.

Also could've sworn Triffids' Born Sandy Devotional goes straight in with The Seabirds: "No foreign pair of dark sunglasses could ever shield you from/the light that pierces your eyelids, the screaming of the gulls."

Turns out the strings come in a fraction of a second before, but think the general idea here is a call to attention to start with, and it's too arresting not to mention.

Barry Adamson - Oedipus Schmoedipus
Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
The Beths - Future Me Hates Me!

The Meters - The Meters

pretty sure Tommy James story was ... Pittsburgh?

XXP: Yeah, that Triffids opener is one of most abrupt I can think of, otherwise! Like they could plausibly have already played through several such verses before we joined them. Gawd, I need to listen to it now...

Neko Case - Furnace Room Lullaby (Set Out Running)

The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs

pretty sure Tommy James story was ... Pittsburgh?

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, December 29, 2022 1:22 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Pittsburgh was where someone found "Hanky Panky," played it at a bunch of dance parties, someone else pressed thousands of (bootleg) copies, then it went to #1 (in Pittsburgh, then Chicago, then nationally).

Daniel Johnston, 1990 (entire first track is a cappella)

Keyshia Cole's sophomore album JUST LIKE YOU. The song is "Let it Go". Technically there's a quick record scratch before she sings acapella, though.

latest Costello album also starts with the vocal (Farewell, Ok)

All Saints s/t

Aphrodite's Child, 666 (The System)