The 50 Greatest Riffs in Rock
 

It's time for.... another list thread!!! I found an article about the "50 Greatest Riffs in Rock" and decided it might make a nice discussion. While #1 was a pretty predictable choice, I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of others such as "Plug In Baby" and "This Charming Man".

50-26
25-1
(The article has nifty links to the riffs if you don't immediately recognize them all, s'worth checking out)

50. Alive - Pearl Jam
49. Devo - Girl U Want
48. Sleater Kinney - Dig Me Out
47. The Temptations - My Girl
46. Muse - Plug In Baby
45. Dinosaur Jr - Feel The Pain
44. Iron Maiden - The Trooper
43. Iron Butterfly - In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida
42. Michael Jackson - Beat It
41. Neil Young - Cinnamon Girl
40. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Sweet Home Alabama
39. Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot
38. The Eagles - Life In The Fast Lane
37. Roy Orbinson - Oh, Pretty Woman
36. Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
35. ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man
34. The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man
33. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
32. Slayer - Raining Blood
31. Chic - Le Freak
30. Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name
29. The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
28. White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
27. Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
26. Van Halen - Aint Talking Bout Love
25. Sly and the Family Stone - Sing a Simple Song
24. Aerosmith - Walk This Way
23. The Allman Brothers Band - Jessica
22. John Lee Hooker - Boom Boom
21. The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
20. James Gang - Funk 49
19. The Meters - Look-ka Py Py
18. Derek and the Dominoes - Layla
17. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
16. T Rex - 20th Century Boy
15. The Smiths - This Charming Man
14. Funkadelic - Hit It and Quit It
13. David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
12. Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
11. Day Tripper - The Beatles
10. Metallica - Enter Sandman
9. Dire Straits - Money for Nothing
8. ACDC - Back In Black
7. Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O Mine
6. The Kinks - You Really Got Me
5. Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode
4. Led Zeppelin - Heartbreaker
3. Black Sabbath - Iron Man
2. Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child
1. The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction

Agree? Disagree? Got a list of your own?

Am I going blind or is Sweet Leaf not on this list?

The wonders one can work with a huge database and a randomizer.

It's an okay list, but there is nothing new. A of of those songs are also on the best guitar solos list as well. There are a couple terrible ones I would never put on a list. Seven Nation Army, House of The Rising Sun, I Want To Be Your Dog, Alive and Beat It? These are good songs, just nothing special. There are some that I am just sick of the being on these lists like Back In Black, Iron Man, and Satisfaction. They aren't so great!!!

Waaaa- House of the Rising sun should be in the top 10 in my opinion.

Zero by the Smashing Pumpkins and Communication Breakdown by Led Zeppelin.

Zero for sure!

This list is ok. Pretty obvious choices, but it's a pretty obvious topic.

They should have saved time & just listed the songs off the first 5 Sabbath albums.

Better than most of the stuff on that list too.

Yeah, I'm in agreement with others from the thread. Rather than being about the riffs, this list looks like more of a compilation of famous rock songs. A couple of my own choice selections would have been 'Thickfreakness' by The Black Keys, 'Dammit' by blink 182, and 'Slack Motherfucker' by Superchunk...

The compiler listed this over-played riff as #1? Great tune and all, fine story to put in a list, influential as well, but Stones '68-'72 tops this and more.

Jumping Jack Flash
Monkey Man
Gimme Shelter
Brown Sugar
Happy


...and that's five for you there!