An irresistible riff; a solo or jam that takes you higher every time you hear it; the final power chord that pins you to the wall and makes you hit “play” again and again, is what makes a great rock & roll guitar sound.You hear the blues, gospel and rockabilly that came before, transormed by the need to say something new and loud, right away. Rock & roll has been the sound of independence for half a century. The guitar is still its essential, liberating voice. These are top 15 listings according to me.
Johnny B. Goode
1 “Johnny B. Goode” was the first great record about the joys and rewards of playing rock & roll guitar. It also has the single greatest rock & roll intro: a thrilling blast of high twang driven by Berry’s spearing notes, followed by a rhythm part that translates a boogie-woogie piano riff for the guitar.
2 “Purple Haze”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
The riff is pure blues — the same kind of guitar figure Hendrix played nightly back on the R&B-club grind, as a sideman for Little Richard and the Isley Brothers.But in “Purple Haze,” Hendrix’s second British single and the first track on the U.S. version of his debut album, he declared himself a free man — “‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky”.
3 “Crossroads”
Cream (1968)
Eric Clapton once described Cream’s music as “blues ancient and modern.” This track is what he meant. He was not yet 23 when he played this high-velocity version of the Robert Johnson song at San Francisco’s Winterland on March 10th, 1968.
4 “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
The Beatles (1968)
This is a tale of two guitar giants at an empathic peak: George Harrison, who wrote this song on acoustic guitar in India, and Eric Clapton, who amplifies Harrison’s vocal dismay with a waterfall of blues fills. It’s the finest examaple of his jagged, late-Sixties tone.
5 “Stairway to Heaven”
Led Zeppelin (1971)
“Stairway,” Jimmy Page told RS in 1975, “crystallized the essence of the band.” It’s a masterpiece of dramatic ascension: Page’s acoustic picking rising into chiming chords, which introduce the solo, a brilliant succession of phrases that steadily move toward rock & roll ecstasy.
6 “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Nirvana (1991)
Most of “Teen Spirit” came easy — Nirvana nailed it in three takes — but that crucial Kurt Cobain guitar intro required an overdub (“That pissed him off,” said producer Butch Vig). It was worth the effort: That riff, along with the band’s loud-quiet-loud dynamics, defined Nineties rock.
7 “Layla”
Derek and the Dominos (1970)
“I didn’t do it — it was Duane,” Eric Clapton said, laughing, in 1988. Guest guitarist Duane Allman created one of rock’s most exciting and memorable licks, pinching the vocal line from Albert King’s “As the Years Go Passing By” and speeding it up.
8 “Black Sabbath”
Black Sabbath (1970)
Tony Iommi invented heavy-metal guitar out of necessity: He’d lost two fingertips on his fretting hand, and he used thimbles and dropped tunings to make playing easier. His crawling, dissonant riff (also called “the devil’s chord”) became the basis of thousands of metal songs.
9 “Classical Gas”
Mason Williams (made from ‘about’ three songs together).
The title of the song was originally “Classical Gasoline” but was changed to “Classical Gas” by the music copyist. On the original recording, Williams plays guitar and is accompanied by an orchestral backing. It was released in February 1968 from the album The Mason Williams Phonograph Record. In August 1968 it reached Number 2 on the American charts and went on to sell over a million copies (the song also topped the Billboard Easy Listening survey). Williams re-recorded the tune as a solo guitar piece on his 1970 album Hand Made.
10 “Sultans of Swing”
Dire Straits (1978)
Part Nashville twang, part pub-rock grit, this ode to a journeyman jazz band offered an earthy alternative to the disco and punk of the late Seventies. Singer-guitarist Mark Knopfler wrote the song on acoustic guitar, then switched to a Strat; his trumpetlike solos and tart licks answer him as he sings.
11 “Master of Puppets”
Metallica (1986)
This long, mutating track showed that California metal wasn’t all hair spray and power chords. A hell’s parade of quick-chop figures and bludgeoning fills, the song is anchored by a main, surging lick with jolting stops, and the guitars sound like grinding brakes.
12 “Interstellar Overdrive”
Pink Floyd (1967)
It’s really just a riff — played by all of Pink Floyd together, then modified, lost and found again over 10 psychedelic minutes. But its impact survived its composer Syd Barrett’s departure, turning up in sets by Pearl Jam and the Mars Volta.
13 “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1968)
This is Hendrix’s magnum opus: one magisterial explosion after another, storming through a catalog of molten blues. Hendrix improvised the wah-wah riff while a TV crew filmed his band. “We weren’t thinking of what we were playing,” he said.
14 “People Get Ready”
The Impressions (1965)
Curtis Mayfield’s deepest civil rights anthem is powered by his eloquent open-tuned guitar-playing: The backbeat echoed the new sounds coming out of Jamaica, and the subtle, fluid solo spirals are as expressive as his singing. Bob Marley later synthesized it with “One Love.”
15 “Where the Streets Have No Name”
U2 (1987)
With the Edge’s chicken-scratched fusillade of echoing guitar tones, U2 shot up from the Top 40 straight into the pop stratosphere. Proof that his guitar style is just as iconic as Bono’s singing: He plays for two full minutes before the vocals come in.
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