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Bob & LBF in the Morning

Bob & LBF in the Morning

Bob & LBF in the Morning

These Are The 8 Most Iconic Guitar Solos Ever

By Bob Bronson
(Photo by Sarah Morris/Getty Images for The Recording Academy )

If you love a great guitar solo, then you need to check out the list that was just compiled by  GuitarPickReviews.com and their eight most iconic guitar solos.

For a lot of concert goers the best part of the band’s performance is the inevitable guitar solo. Watching the axe man (or woman) shredding the guitar is an awesome site. All great bands have great lead guitar players and all great bands have at least one song with a guitar solo that lends itself to being the center of attention during the show.

Player or slayer?

You watch in awe as the guitarist rips through the solo with their hands working the electric guitar like a magician wielding a wand. Long hair (usually) blown by the onstage fans and the intense focus of the lead guitar player is a must for any rock concert.

Guitar experts love to debate who the best guitar players in the world are

Not surprisingly. this list comprises the all time “who’s who” of lead guitar players with 3 of them coming out of the 1960’s and 1970’s, others from the 1980’s and one on the list who has made his living as a lead guitar solo act.

Forget the drum solo

Of course, most concert also feature a drum solo as well, for most people the drum solo is a signal that the band is taking a break and going backstage and they will leave the drummer alone on stage banging away for up to 5 plus minutes. For me, I prefer the guitar solo because like most everyone in the audience, it’s easier to play “air guitar” than it is to play “air drums”.

Here are the Eight most Iconic Guitar Solos of All Time!

  • 8. Surfing with the Alien, Joe Satriani

    Released in 1987, although it was never a top 40 hit, it got a ton of play on Album Oriented Rock radio stations and is still considered to be one of his masterpieces.

  • 7. One, Metallica

    Released in 1989 with Kirk Hammett on lead guitar, One set Metallica apart from other late 80’s Big Hair Bands and landed them along on top of the list for Heavy Metal bands. Hammett is still crushing on guitar and even released his first solo album in 2022.

  • 6. November Rain, Guns N' Roses

    November Rain is one of the most watched music videos of all time, the epic song is highlighted by Slash’s solo playing while wearing his iconic top hat, rocking the desert out while Axl Rose is getting married to another super model.

  • 5. Eruption, Van Halen

    The late great Eddie Van Halen shows he truly was the Mozart of the guitar. The live version of the song can go to almost 12 minutes of him absolutely holding the crowd in the palm of his hands all the while he does things on the guitar that still seem impossible.

  • 4. Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd

    The guitar solo on Comfortably Numb is different from the others on the list, it’s not a guitar shredding by David Gilmour that you hear, its more of a subdued guitar solo that fits perfectly into this very moody song.

  • 3. Layla, Eric Clapton

    This rock classic comes right out of the gate with an iconic guitar lick that sets the stage for the next 7 and half minutes, it helped establish once and for all time that Clapton is a guitar god. A friend of mine named his one and only daughter Layla, purely because of this song, apparently his wife was also a fan.

  • 2. Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin

    Jimmy Page is also considered to be one of top 5 best guitar players in the world and this song proves it. Stairway is still played pretty much every day on radio and is always ranked near the top of any best of classic rock songs list.

  • 1. All Along the Watchtower, Jimi Hendrix

    Jimi Hendrix took this Bob Dylan song and totally changed it from folk to an instant classic. Jimi Hendrix is still considered to be the all time greatest guitarist and the tragedy of his early death at 27 leaves us to wonder what might have been.

Hope you enjoyed the list, but we realize that there’s a good chance one of your favorites didn’t make the list. I can think of a few myself, but the experts got together and came up with these 8 that are pretty hard to argue they don’t belong.

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