The Top 25 Greatest Guitar Riffs Of All Time
Apr 2nd, 2008 by Guitar MX Admin
A recent poll was taken among students from London music schools. They were asked to choose the greatest guitar riffs of all time.
They came up with a list of mostly classic rock riffs. Of the top 25, only 7 were written in the last 20 years and there wasn’t a single riff written since 2003.
Does this mean that all the good riffs have been written, or does nostalgia play a role?
It’s possible that you have to wait until the dust settles before we can truly consider a riff’s eligibility for classic status - John Wheatcroft, Guitar-X Music School
I would agree with that. Here’s the list the students came up with. All in all, not a bad list. The links go to videos of each riff being performed.
Top 25 guitar riffs of all time
- 1. Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple (1973)
- 2. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana (1991)
- 3. Walk This Way - Aerosmith (1975)
- 4. Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix (1967)
- 5. Sweet Child O Mine - Guns N Roses (1987)
- 6. Paradise City - Guns N Roses (1987)
- 7. Ace Of Spades - Motorhead (1980)
- 8. Enter Sandman - Metallica (1991)
- 9. Under The Bridge - Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1992)
- 10. Welcome To The Jungle - Guns N Roses (1987)
- 11. Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden (1982)
- 12. Walk - Pantera (1992)
- 13. Johnny Be Goode - Chuck Berry (1958)
- 14. Back In Black - AC/DC (1980)
- 15. Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin (1970)
- 16. Wake Up - Rage Against The Machine (1992)
- 17. Highway to Hell - AC/DC (1979)
- 18. My Generation - The Who (1965)
- 19. 7 Nation Army - The White Stripes (2003)
- 20. Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf (1968)
- 21. Give It Away - Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1991)
- 22. Paranoid - Black Sabbath (1970)
- 23. Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) - Jimi Hendrix (1967)
- 24. Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor (1982)
- 25. Money For Nothing - Dire Straits (1984)
You can read more about this list here.
#1. ‘Smoke on the Water’……..aaarrrgggh, gimme a break! Biggest load of over@ed pants EVER!!
Where was ‘The Ocean’ by Led Zeppelin ?
Where was ‘Oh well - Part 1 by Fleetwood Mac ?
‘RIFFS’ are gre@ but wh@ about THE WARRIORS man! Caaan yooou DIG IT!? - RIFFS!!…YEAH!!
; J
I agree with most of them. I love Maiden but honestly at this moment I don’t remember the riff in Run to the hills…I think that One from Metallica should be there too, and actually more songs of Metallica because they created great starting riffs, they kind of patented dark clean tone starting riffs
[...] In: Rocking in the free world Thursday Apr 3,2008 Guitar MX started an interesting list of top 25 greatest guitar riffs of all time! Man, this should have been one of my next posts, now I can’t write it anymore! So, what can [...]
It would be hard to include ALL of the greatest riffs ever, so I say this list is a great start…cool that the links go to videos of the bands…
rock on!
People who make “Greatest ____ of all time” lists are tools.
This list sucks!!!! A list with out Clapton and The Stones is NOT a list!!!!!
Where are the Rolling Stones?
“Satisfaction”? “Brown Sugar”? “Jumpin Jack Flash”?
Yeah, those were okay riffs… They’re no “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor!
Does “Born to be Wild” even HAVE a riff?
Sabbath. crazy train!