Best Guitar Riffs
Chuggin, grinding and groovin to the sound of guitar riffs, I was probably playing air guitar before I could walk. Before the days of YouTube and the Internet, you coundn't find free guitar lessons and you couldn't just Google any ol' guitar tab to any rock song. If you wanted to learn a lick, you sweated it out and listened to the song a couple million times. If you ran me through an x-ray machine today, you'd see a Les Paul II Cherry Sunburst Special in there somewhere hooked up to my heart, pumping out riffs. 25 years on, my heart's still beating to the rhythm of rock and best of all, my favorite guitar riffs are rubbing off onto my kids (aged 11 and 9) and they're proving to be knobs off the old amp.
So... in no particular order (coz' I can't get my freaking mind organized), here's my list of greatest guitar riffs.
So... in no particular order (coz' I can't get my freaking mind organized), here's my list of greatest guitar riffs.
Rockin Guitar Riffs (set 1)
Leading the first set of BEST GUITAR RIFFS is Deep Purple's Smoke On The Water. In my humble opinion, NO other guitar riff equals this.
Also top billing this set are Dire Straits' Money For Nothing and the perennial favorite, Johnnie B. Goode by that cool duck-walkin Chuck Berry.
Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild really rocked my brain while I studied for my high school exams and you could hear Joan Jett's guitar riff from I Hate Myself For Loving You thundering out of every bar and pub years after it was released. Believe it or not, I have a cartoon - The Magic Roundabout, I think it was - for introducing me to The Kinks' You Really Got Me Going.
Capping Set 1 is Mr Slow Hand himself Eric Clapton's Sunshine Of Your Love, The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction, which has always left my guitar-riffin-starved ears satisfied, plus the rocking sounds of Bad To The Bone by George Thorogood. Thanks to these guitar riffs, I have been left bad to the bone.
Also top billing this set are Dire Straits' Money For Nothing and the perennial favorite, Johnnie B. Goode by that cool duck-walkin Chuck Berry.
Steppenwolf's Born To Be Wild really rocked my brain while I studied for my high school exams and you could hear Joan Jett's guitar riff from I Hate Myself For Loving You thundering out of every bar and pub years after it was released. Believe it or not, I have a cartoon - The Magic Roundabout, I think it was - for introducing me to The Kinks' You Really Got Me Going.
Capping Set 1 is Mr Slow Hand himself Eric Clapton's Sunshine Of Your Love, The Rolling Stones' Satisfaction, which has always left my guitar-riffin-starved ears satisfied, plus the rocking sounds of Bad To The Bone by George Thorogood. Thanks to these guitar riffs, I have been left bad to the bone.
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Rockin Guitar Riffs (Set 2)
Kickin off Set 2 is Jimi Hendrix's mesmerizing Purple Haze. Then, Joe Perry lets rip with one of the most addictive riffs of all time in Aerosmith's Walk This Way, made even cooler with the help of Run DMC. The Beatles' and their wonderfully nostalgic Day Tripper completes the top line-up for Set 2.
I remember in the 70's I got hooked on Wild Cherry's wildly funky guitar riff in Play That Funky Music. Clapton's slow version of Crossroads has always been my favorite. Somehow, the original version seemed like a train rushing out of control - but that's just me. Metalica's Enter Sandman makes for a real foot stomping start to a concert.
The next three are oldies but definitely rockin goodies. The Beatles' Roll Over Beethoven has similarities to Chuck Berry, but it is still an all-time favorite. Then, we have Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones - one of the most taught riffs to would-be rockers. We close Set 2 with a blues riff that I always copied but never knew where it came from. Muddy Waters sings Mannish Boy together with the Stones in this video.
I remember in the 70's I got hooked on Wild Cherry's wildly funky guitar riff in Play That Funky Music. Clapton's slow version of Crossroads has always been my favorite. Somehow, the original version seemed like a train rushing out of control - but that's just me. Metalica's Enter Sandman makes for a real foot stomping start to a concert.
The next three are oldies but definitely rockin goodies. The Beatles' Roll Over Beethoven has similarities to Chuck Berry, but it is still an all-time favorite. Then, we have Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones - one of the most taught riffs to would-be rockers. We close Set 2 with a blues riff that I always copied but never knew where it came from. Muddy Waters sings Mannish Boy together with the Stones in this video.
curated content from YouTube
Rockin Guitar Riffs (Set 3)
In set 3, Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger was a major favorite of mine in the 80's. Eric Clapton's Layla and Guns N Roses' Sweet Child Of Mine are also in this set.
Yes' hit Owner Of A Lonely Heart and ZZTop's Sharp Dressed Man really made my high school years bearable and it was the TV series Tour of Duty that introduced me to the Stones' moody Paint It Black.
Who doesn't know Michael Jacksons' super mega hit Beat It? This riff opens Set 3, followed by The Knacks' My Sharona. Their riff had a quirky feel which really rubbed my up the wrong way at first, but once the groove sunk in, I was hooked. I was not a fan of Black Sabbath's original version of Iron Man but when the movie came out in 2008, the cleaner riff on the soundtrack definitely made me a fan.
Yes' hit Owner Of A Lonely Heart and ZZTop's Sharp Dressed Man really made my high school years bearable and it was the TV series Tour of Duty that introduced me to the Stones' moody Paint It Black.
Who doesn't know Michael Jacksons' super mega hit Beat It? This riff opens Set 3, followed by The Knacks' My Sharona. Their riff had a quirky feel which really rubbed my up the wrong way at first, but once the groove sunk in, I was hooked. I was not a fan of Black Sabbath's original version of Iron Man but when the movie came out in 2008, the cleaner riff on the soundtrack definitely made me a fan.
curated content from YouTube
Rockin Guitar Riffs (Set 4)
John Lee Hooker is a master of the blues, but it is his simple riff in Boom Boom that's stuck in my mind when I think about great guitar riffs. Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison was a riff every guy played or whistled every time they say a cute girl. The Romantics' That's what I Like About You was given a fresh breath of life when the were featured in the popular Playstation game Guitar Hero (Rock of the 80's)
Lenny Kravitz isn't one of my favorite performers, but his riff on Are You Gonna Go My Way is. During my metal years in the 80's, I drove my mom totally berserk every time I played Dio's Holy Diver. Jimmy Hendrix's Voodoo Child is ALWAYS on any list of best guitar riffs and he definitely is on this list!
Video set updates will continue periodically. In the meantime... enjoy and ROCK ON!
Lenny Kravitz isn't one of my favorite performers, but his riff on Are You Gonna Go My Way is. During my metal years in the 80's, I drove my mom totally berserk every time I played Dio's Holy Diver. Jimmy Hendrix's Voodoo Child is ALWAYS on any list of best guitar riffs and he definitely is on this list!
Video set updates will continue periodically. In the meantime... enjoy and ROCK ON!
curated content from YouTube
Vote for your rockin-est guitar riff!
Whoa... do I hear the muttering of dissatisfaction? Your favorite guitar riff isn't in THE list of best guitar riffs? Well, much as I'd like it to be, my brain is NOT the National Archive of Guitar Riffs ya know. There's a whole bunch of songs that I've never even heard of, so let's see if we can put together a collective list. Waiting to hear from you guys...
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- rs217000 rs217000 Jul 7, 2009 @ 6:23 pm
- You have a lot of good jams on there, man. Cool lens.
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- AndrewShim AndrewShim May 29, 2009 @ 5:20 am | in reply to grannysage
- Oh I can twang a guitar string or two or six. Loved it when the amps were cranked up high and the watts just fried my brain!
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- grannysage grannysage May 28, 2009 @ 11:09 pm
- I vote for Black Night by Deep Purple. Actually, anything Ritchie Blackmore does is awesome in my eyes. Love Smoke on the Water too. I didn't know how you wanted to put it in your list, so I'll let you plug it in. Great job. I'm impressed you can actually play this stuff. I kind of muddled around with House of the Rising Sun for awhile.
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- AndrewShim AndrewShim Apr 8, 2009 @ 5:37 pm | in reply to LindaJM
- oh wow Linda... I'm so touched. I'm just a baby squid, so I thought "angel blessing" was another Squidoo term I hadn't heard of. So I squidooed it and found out what a wonderful honour it is to be angel-blessed. I am even more humbled and honoured to have a beautiful Squid Angel as my very first fan...
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- LindaJM LindaJM Apr 6, 2009 @ 2:19 pm
- This is an awesome lens. I'll have to come back when I have more time to listen to these videos! You're getting an angel blessing and high-five from me today. I hope you'll make more lenses... this one is really good. I'm lensrolling it to my lens about vintage Beatles albums.
by AndrewShim
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