The 50 Most Famous Rock Guitar Riffs | #guitarriff #guitarplayer

A guitar riff is a short, catchy sequence of notes or chords that repeats throughout a song, creating a unique sonic identity and often becoming its signature. These riffs are what make some songs instantly recognizable, playing a crucial role in rock music.

In this video, we’ve gathered the 50 most famous guitar riffs in rock, and to measure this popularity we’ve followed some criteria that we’re going to share with you now.

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CRITERIA:

For this list, we considered songs that predominantly feature guitar riffs, excluding riffs from other instruments. Riffs that include guitar but where it isn’t the main focus were not considered. The ranking of the songs for this list was done based on extensive research. Below are the steps taken by our team:

• First, we evaluated the spontaneous comments generated on a Shorts video released on 07/03/2024 about the most famous rock riffs (https://youtube.com/shorts/Xxo2FbPXRbY). For each mention in the comments, we added 1 point.

• Then, we researched 11 lists published online by popular websites, which were based on public voting. The lists we used were from Guitar World, Music Radar, Letras, Emastered, Cifra Club, Musiquês, BBC Radio 2, TeamRock, Fender, uDiscoverMusic, and Guitar Player. We added 5 points per mention from these lists to our tally.

• Finally, we checked the Billboard Hot 100™ for each song on our list and added the following points:
– Songs that reached No. 1 on the charts earned 1 point multiplied by the number of weeks they stayed on the charts;
– Songs that reached 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place earned 0.8 points multiplied by the number of weeks;
– Songs that reached 5th, 6th, or 7th place earned 0.5 points multiplied by the number of weeks;
– Songs that reached 8th, 9th, or 10th place earned 0.3 points multiplied by the number of weeks;
– Songs below 11th place earned 0.1 points multiplied by the number of weeks.

Once the list was finalized, we reviewed it for any criteria that could disqualify songs. At this stage, we removed “Money” (Pink Floyd), “Africa” (Toto), and “Jump” (Van Halen) from the list. The songs that ranked just below them were promoted to the final list.

As a final tiebreaker, we searched for the song on YouTube and applied the “view count” filter. The song with the most views was ranked higher. We added the icon “⬆️” next to songs classified this way, with more icons indicating higher views.

The complete list with the corresponding points is as follows:

50. Come As You Are (NIRVANA) = 7,8
49. Heartbreaker (LED ZEPPELIN) = 9
48. Holy Diver (DIO) = 9,9
47. 20th Century Boy (T. REX) = 10
46. Bitch (ROLLING STONES) = 10 – ⬆️
45. Rumble (LINK WRAY) = 10 – ⬆️⬆️
44. Killing in the Name (RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE) = 10 ⬆️⬆️⬆️
43. Bad to the Bone (GEORGE THOROGOOD & THE DESTROYERS) = 10,7
42. Oh Well (FLEETWOOD MAC) = 11
41. Kashmir (LED ZEPPELIN) = 11 ⬆️
40. Immigrant Song (LED ZEPPELIN) = 11,3
39. Proud Mary (CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL) = 12,2
38. Sultans of Swing (DIRE STRAITS) = 13
37. Highway to Hell (AC/DC) = 13 ⬆️
36. Welcome to the Jungle (GUNS N’ ROSES) = 13,5
35. Paperback Writer (THE BEATLES) = 15
34. Voodoo Child (JIMI HENDRIX) = 15 ⬆️
33. Walk (PANTERA) = 15 ⬆️⬆️
32. Thunderstruck (AC/DC) = 16
31. Stairway to Heaven (LED ZEPPELIN) – 17
30. Black Dog (LED ZEPPELIN) = 18,2
29. Pretty Woman (ROY ORBISON) = 20
28. Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes) = 20 ⬆️
27. Start Me Up (THE ROLLING STONES) = 20,2
26. Twist And Shout (THE BEATLES) – 20,8
25. Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love (VAN HALEN) – 22
24. All Right Now (FREE) = 22,8
23. Sweet Home Alabama (LYNYRD SKYNYRD) = 23,1
22. Paranoid (BLACK SABBATH) = 24,8
21. Every Breath You Take (THE POLICE) = 27
20. La Grange (ZZ TOP) = 27,9
19. Livin’ On A Prayer (BON JOVI) = 28
18. Crazy Train (OZZY OSBOURNE) = 29
17. Day Tripper (THE BEATLES) = 31
16. Enter Sandman (METALLICA) = 31⬆️
15. Johnny B. Goode (CHUCK BERRY) = 32,1
14. Iron Man (BLACK SABBATH) = 35
13. Eye of the Tiger (SURVIVOR) = 37
12. You Really Got Me (THE KINKS) = 37,5
11. Money for Nothing (DIRE STRAITS) = 40
10. Layla (ERIC CLAPTON) = 40 ⬆️
9. Sunshine of Your Love (CREAM) = 42
8. Beat It (MICHAEL JACKSON) = 46
7. Back in Black (AC/DC) = 46,5
6. Smells Like Teen Spirit (NIRVANA) = 49
5. Purple Haze (JIMI HENDRIX) = 49,8
4. Sweet Child O’ Mine (GUNS N’ ROSES) = 64
3. Whole Lotta Love (LED ZEPPELIN) = 65
2. Satisfaction (THE ROLLING STONES) = 67
1. Smoke on the Water (DEEP PURPLE) = 81,8

• Honorable mentions:

Master of Puppets (Metallica), Helter Skelter (The Beatles), Alive (Pearl Jam), The Trooper (Iron Maiden), Communications Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) and Jessica (The Allman Brothers Band).

We hope you enjoyed our list.

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#guitar #rockriffs #heavymetal #hardrock #guitarmaster #rockmusic #guitarsolo